Ex-officer accused of racism takes legal action to avoid facing spycops inquiry

Neville and Doreen Lawrence at a press conference in 1999. The current inquiry is examining why undercover officers in Scotland Yard spied on the Lawrences’ campaign in the 1990s. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

A former senior police officer at the centre of the controversy over the surveillance of the campaign to expose the killers of teenager Stephen Lawrence is taking legal action that would prevent him being questioned at a public inquiry.

The officer, who is facing allegations that he called black campaigners “monkeys”, is intending to resist an order by the undercover policing inquiry that would require him to give oral evidence.