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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Rob Evans

Undercover police officer fabricated gun plot by animal rights activists, inquiry told

James Thomson
James Thomson. The inquiry is examining covert spying on thousands of predominantly leftwing activists between 1968 and at least 2010. Photograph: Handout

Managers of an undercover police officer believed he had concocted a plot in which animal rights activists purportedly sought to obtain a gun to inflict a revenge attack on a political opponent, the spycops public inquiry has heard.

The officer, James Thomson, claimed he had uncovered the plot while he infiltrated animal rights groups. But his managers later came to doubt whether it was genuine, with one of them appearing to call it “bollocks”.

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