Spy cop who led special branch admits wrongly accusing activist of bomb plot

Dave Morris, who was accused by Roger Pearce of ‘recceing bomb sites’, is known as one of the defendants in the McLibel case. Photograph: Getty Images

An undercover police officer who went on to become the head of the Metropolitan police’s special branch has admitted he mistakenly accused an activist of planning to plant bombs at a military base.

Roger Pearce, the undercover officer who infiltrated anarchist groups in the 1980s, had alleged to a public inquiry that he drove to Aldershot with a group of anarchists to “recce bomb sites”. He accused Dave Morris of being one of the anarchists.