Peter Francis is a former Special Demonstration Squad officer who played a central role in helping uncover the scandals around undercover policing, particularly the spying on the Stephen Lawrence justice campaign and the targeting of trade unions. He originally appeared as ‘Officer A’ in a series of news stories in The Observer and The Guardian, and thereafter as ‘Peter Black’ until 2013 when he appeared under his real name in a programme released by The Guardian and Dispatches.
Having become a whistleblower against the abuses by his former colleagues (despite being threatened with the Official Secrets Act ), he has his own unique place in the Inquiry given his insight into the world of the undercovers. Represented by the firm of Leigh Day, he has made a number of submissions to the Inquiry, particularly in relation to the requests for anonymity – some of which he opposed.
While infiltrating Youth Against Racism in Europe in the 1990s he used several aliases: ‘Peter Johnson’, ‘Peter Daley’ and ‘Peter Black’, the first of which was stolen from a deceased child.
His former wife Jennifer Francis / HAB is also a core participant in the Inquiry in her own right as part of Category M (Families of police officers).
His recognised legal representative is Emma Jones (previously it was Rosa Curling) of Leigh Day. His counsel is Maya Sikand KC of Doughty Street Chambers. He has been given the nominal HN43 in the Undercover Policing Inquiry but it is not regularly used.