Whistleblowing ex-police spy has become ‘an inconvenient truth’

A former undercover police officer turned whistleblower has become “an inconvenient truth” facing “criticism from every corner”, a public inquiry has been told.

Peter Francis has learned that “nobody really likes a whistleblower” since exposing police secrets, but cannot apologise for telling the truth, the Undercover Policing Inquiry heard.

The latest stage of the mammoth inquiry, which began in 2015, started on Monday with three days of opening statements.

Speaking to the inquiry on Mr Francis’s behalf on Tuesday, Maya Sikand KC said that had he known there would be a 10-year wait to give evidence, the former officer would never have called for a public inquiry.

Ms Sikand said: “What this whole experience has taught him, is that nobody really likes a whistleblower.

“Although whistleblowers are traditionally heroes to some and traitorous villains to others, here in this inquiry, Mr Francis faces criticism from every corner – the police, the spied upon and no doubt, in due course, the inquiry itself.”

He revealed that undercover officers in the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) had sexual relationships with women who did not know their true identities and used the names of dead children without the families’ permission.

Mr Francis also claimed that he had been tasked with gathering information to smear the family of murdered Stephen Lawrence, something the Met denies.

Ms Sikand went on: “If he was once a hero to somebody, the problems that have beset this inquiry and the consequent glacial pace with which it has proceeded, have just made him an inconvenient truth to many.

“Mr Francis cannot apologise for telling the truth. He cannot apologise on behalf of the SDS, that is not in his gift.

“But he can and will apologise for the hurt and pain he has caused to those he spied upon and is willing to take full personal responsibility, despite the fact he was doing his job, and doing it as directed.

“He is especially remorseful about using the identity of a deceased child to create his cover story.

“To that family he says, ‘there are no words sufficient to describe the profound wrong I committed against you, but please know that the depth of my regret is absolute’.”

Mr Francis made his first disclosure to the Guardian in March 2010 under a pseudonym, and revealed his real name in a Dispatches documentary in 2013.

Ms Sikand said: “He believes that the public has the right to know what is done on their behalf, of the true inner workings of the SDS during its lifetime, however unpalatable this may be and however sharply this may rebound on him.”

Several police officers have been granted anonymity in the inquiry, but “Peter Francis firmly believes that only when you come into the cold light of day, unmasked, can you be truly accountable”, she said.

One known as HN81, cover name David Hagan, is refusing to give oral evidence to the inquiry, and is set to apply for a judicial review arguing that it has no power to compel him to do so because he lives overseas.

HN81 and Mr Francis both infiltrated the Movement for Justice in the late 1990s when it supported the justice campaign by Stephen Lawrence’s family, and parts of their evidence conflict.

“That Mr Francis will not be afforded the opportunity, via his counsel, or counsel to the inquiry, to ask questions of so key a witness, who has freely and repeatedly impugned his credibility and continues to do so through his counsel, is unfair to Mr Francis, whatever is deemed fair to HN81,” Ms Sikand said.

She suggested he is being given “special status” because he has provided a 77-page written statement but will not face questioning.

The inquiry heard that Mr Francis was “a highly effective, valued undercover officer”, who also met with MI5 to provide intelligence on a group called Militant, and received commendations including from the security service.