SMEARING people is a “Security Service job”, a former police officer told an inquiry into undercover operations – just before the live feed was cut off.
Former undercover police officer Trevor Morris – who infiltrated the Anti-Nazi League in East London, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Stephen Lawrence justice campaign in the 1990s – made the comments as he gave evidence to the Undercover Policing Inquiry on Thursday.
Morris, who was known as HN 78 while active from 1991 to 1995, was asked about whether police had been asked to gather “intelligence with which to smear the Lawrence family”.
The Lawrence family were campaigning for justice after their 18-year-old son Stephen was murdered in a racially motivated attack in London in 1993.
In 1998, an inquiry concluded that there was “no doubt but that there were fundamental errors” in the Met’s investigation into the murder.
It went on: “The investigation was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism, and a failure of leadership by senior officers.”
Asked if undercover police were gathering “intelligence with which to smear the Lawrence family”, Morris told the Undercover Policing Inquiry on Thursday that that was not his job. Instead, he said it was for MI5 – the Security Service – to do.
Morris said: “I heard this subsequently, and I thought that was … nonsense. That's not what we’re about. We're about gathering intelligence, not smearing individuals.
“That's a Security Service job. Let them do that. We're bothered about gathering intelligence. That's what we were doing.”
Morris then said: “Sorry I shouldn’t say that. Let’s scrap that last bit. I’m not saying that.”
The interrogating lawyer asked: “Are you or are you not in a position to say whether or not the Security Service was seeking to smear …”
At this point the live feed of the Undercover Policing Inquiry was suspended.
Commenting, The National columnist Pat Kane wrote on social media: "Oops. British deep state showing a bit of leg. The imposed caption at the end is like some bad 80’s political-paranoid tv drama."
This is incredible. A former police officer, under oath, has said the police didn’t smear the family of Stephen Lawrence. “That’s a security services job…scrap that last bit”. The broadcast is then suspended!pic.twitter.com/OG72WIMqee
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) August 1, 2024
In July, the Metropolitan Police apologised for the “indefensible” use of undercover officers to infiltrate anti-racism police justice campaigns in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Peter Skelton KC, acting on behalf of the force at the inquiry, said many of the political and social groups spied on at the time were unnecessarily targeted. He also repeated apologies to women who were deceived into relationships with undercover officers without knowing their true identity.
One officer in the shadowy Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), Bob Lambert, fathered a child, who has since received a payout from the force.
Making his opening statement at the latest stage of the inquiry, Skelton said: “The Metropolitan Police Service wishes to acknowledge that in many cases, the value of the intelligence produced during long-term, open ended deployments by SDS officers did not justify the duration and depth of their intrusion into the private lives of those with whom they had contact.”
The National understands that the inquiry live feed was suspended due to information which was to be disclosed after the conversation about the Security Service, with the internet stream running around 10 minutes later than the live actions in the room.
The Undercover Policing Inquiry is to publish a full transcript of the exchange before this confidential information was discussed, which will include Morris’s replies on the topic.
