Police spy who stole identity of dead baby was not prosecuted, inquiry hears

Barbara Shaw, the mother of Rod Richardson, died in May last year – two weeks before her family was informed of the CPS decision not to prosecute. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

Prosecutors decided that it was not in the public interest to prosecute an undercover police officer who stole the identity of a dead baby, despite concluding last year that there was enough evidence to bring him to court.

The police spy had taken the identity of Rod Richardson and used it when he pretended for three years to be an environmental and anti-capitalist protester.