As part of SDS tradecraft, undercovers adopted a new persona, with a false name, changed appearance and ‘legend’ – a constructed background they would rely on if asked questions – which included vehicle and employment.
The first undercovers made minimal changes, altering their last name, growing their hair and dressing down, it being simply sufficient that they did not stand out as police officers.
However, anticipating that future undercover infiltrations would last longer than the short-term deployments of the first cohort of SDS officers, in November 1968, the unit’s founder HN325 Conrad Dixon wrote the following guideline in an internal memo titled Penetration of Extremist Groups:
IDENTITY AND BACKGROUND MATERIAL
On joining the Squad an officer has to supply an autobiography covering his new identity, and after the various inconsistencies have been eradicated he obtains the necessary papers to confirm it.
As with much tradecraft envisaged by Dixon, the reality seems to have been far less organised. Early undercovers do not remember being asked to supply an autobiography to managers. Instead, cover-identity formation appears to have developed organically during the 1970s into an established set of tactics.
With the exception of choosing names and the later use of dead children’s identities, tradecraft was mostly carried out piecemeal; it differed from undercover to undercover. Some clearly considered it in detail and put work into it, others had a much more laissez-faire attitude. One factor that affected this was how long undercovers spent in the back office before being deployed in the field. This period, where it existed, was used in part to create their cover names and stories.
As noted, the first set of undercovers deployed in 1968 and 1969 made minimal effort to create a cover identity. Their undercover work was treated as an extension of existing Special Branch plain-clothes work monitoring left-wing groups. The cover identity involved little more than changing their name along with modifying their appearance
Early SDS officers HN334 ‘Margaret White’ and HN330 ‘Don de Freitas’ both noted they received no guidance or instruction from managers on how to create a false identity, beyond using fake names and being told to act as girlfriend and boyfriend. This lack of guidance continued beyond the unit’s first intake. HN340 ‘Andy Bailey’ , deployed from 1970 to 1972 recalls that he ‘had no meaningful back story or “legend” to support my cover identity’.
From the start of the 1970s, however, some undercovers started to develop rudimentary personas and backgrounds to aid their deployments. HN301 ‘Bob Stubbs’ , deployed between 1971 and 1976 explained the approach: ‘I think the general wisdom was not to let things get too complicated as it would be easy for the story to fall apart under investigation.’
Nonetheless, undercovers started to think a little more about fleshing out the background of their cover personae. Deployed in the early 1970s, HN343 ‘John Clinton’ and HN348 ‘Sandra Davies’ both told the Inquiry that their cover names were chosen with input from senior officers. HN339 ‘Stewart Goodman’ developed a backstory that he ‘had been bumming around Europe playing guitar and singing and I had just returned to the country’. HN347 ‘Alex Sloan’ told people he had come to London to look for work.
Deployed for five years from 1971, HN299/342 ‘David Hughes’ took a much deeper approach. His legend was that he had come to London from Glasgow to look for work. Before starting his deployment, he spent time in Glasgow getting to know a well-known activist there, so that when he arrived in London he could show his targets there that he already had verifiable political connections.
Hughes was also the first undercover to say he spent time building up his legend in his target area, putting him well ahead of contemporaries in preparing so thoroughly. It was not until HN304 ‘Graham Coates’ was deployed in 1976 that an undercover went to such lengths again.
The Inquiry has released only one witness statement from an undercover who started their deployment in 1972 or 1973, but it is pivotal. The witness statement by HN298 ‘Mike Scott’ (1972 to 1976) , provides the earliest evidence of the use of a dead child’s identity – a tactic he claims to have come up with by himself. [[link to witness statement]]
By 1974, when HN200 ‘Roger Harris’ , HN351 ‘Jeff Slater’ and HN353 ‘Gary Roberts’ began their deployments, using identities taken from dead children had become established practice. But in the mid-1970s, undercovers used dead children’s identities only to source a cover name and documents – researching other aspects of the children’s backgrounds did not feature at that point.
There is no written evidence from officers deployed in 1975. From 1976, however, there was a gradual change in practice. Undercovers continued to use dead children’s identities but started putting more, albeit still limited, effort into shoring up their legends.
Undercovers trying to infiltrate the more security-conscious political groups faced scrutiny from activists - especially when the officers began to take positions of responsibility or applied for formal membership. This need to stand up to closer scrutiny probably contributed to undercovers starting to create more detailed cover identities.
HN304 ‘Graham Coates’ gave evidence to the Inquiry that ‘on one occasion, I made a detour to where the deceased child had been born so I was familiar with the area… I wanted to be prepared in case I was questioned by activists who had researched his background’. Coates also spent time living the life of the activist he was pretending to be, visiting local pubs and cafes, reading Socialist Worker and chatting about his dissatisfaction with right-wing politics.
In 1976, HN297 Richard Clark ‘Rick Gibson’ was exposed when those he was targeting became suspicious and investigated his cover identity, and discovered the death certificate. This appears to have created greater awareness of the need to have a strong legend: in the late 1970s and 1980s tradecraft became stronger regarding cover identity as undercovers preparing to be deployed were now factoring in the risk of activists researching their backgrounds when developing their cover identities.
HN96 ‘Mike James’ , active from 1978 to 1983, visited Blackpool, the town where the dead child whose identity he had stolen was born. He also developed a cover story, approved by SDS management, that he had a Jewish girlfriend who was not keen on his political activities, to give him an excuse to remain distant. He spent time exploring his deployment area to build up his presence there – something that had become a standard part of tradecraft by then.
HN106 ‘Barry Tompkins’ claimed to have been born or lived overseas and came to England with his parents to make it harder for his records to be traced. HN155 ‘Phil Cooper’ researched schools and addresses in Liverpool that no longer existed to use in his cover story, so activists could not visit them to check up on him. He also said he had gone straight into the merchant navy after school, to avoid scrutiny.
Not everyone was so conscientious. HN354 Vince Harvey ‘Vince Miller’ (1976-79) said he ‘simply made my legend up as I went along. I had an employment, a driving licence, and accommodation. [Redacted] This was sufficient’. Harvey told activists that both his parents were dead and he had walked out of a toxic relationship with nothing, to explain why his flat was so empty and he had no friends and family.
His account is noteworthy as being the first recorded use of a ‘toxic past relationship’ scenario, which would be regularly employed by later undercovers. Harvey used this story when deceiving Inquiry core participant Madeleine into a sexual relationship.
Cover identities remained an important part of spycops tradecraft throughout the SDS and NPOIU with much effort going into preparing and developing them. This preparation work became a key requirement for an undercover preparing for deployment into the field. Later in the 1980s some undercovers spoke about being tested on their identity by managers, even down to knowing their star sign.
Undercovers whose real names are known demonstrate how common it was for SDS officers to use their own first name or a variation on it for their cover name.
| Real Name | Cover Name |
|---|---|
| Barry Moss | Barry Morris |
| Richard Clark | Rick Gibson |
| Vincent Harvey | Vince Miller |
| Michael Chitty | Mike Blake |
| Robert Lambert | Bob Robinson |
| John Dines | John Barker |
| Andrew Coles | Andy Davey |
| Peter Frances | Pete Black |
| Carlo Soracchi | Carlo Neri |
| Mark Kennedy | Mark Stone |
| James Thomson | James Straven |
This was not always the case: ‘Mike Scott’ said he chose the name Mike simply because he liked it and HN80 ‘Colin Clark’ said he chose a name to fit the nickname ‘CC’.
Nevertheless, in the 1980s, it seems to have become established practice for undercovers to use their real first names, which meant finding a dead child with the same first or middle name. Undercover turned whistleblower HN43 Peter Francis ‘Pete Black’ confirmed this: ‘Wherever possible, spies were required to find someone who shared their first name. This was important: it was notoriously difficult to suddenly adopt a completely different first name.’
Some later undercovers looked for a dead child whose middle name, rather than their first, matched their own, as this made it harder to find their birth and death certificates. For example HN10 Bob Lambert used the birth certificate of Mark Robert Robinson to become ‘Bob Robinson’, and HN5 John Dines used that of Philip John Barker to become ‘John Barker’.
Once undercovers had stopped using dead children’s names to eliminate the risk of activists finding their death certificates, they had to make up surnames that were unremarkable but not a cliché. How this occurred is not yet clear and appears the Inquiry considers it significant enough to redact from witness statements. However, the later tradecraft manual included in it a list of the most common surnames in the UK.