HN294 joined the SDS no later than December 1969 and spent some time as an undercover officer before being promoted to a managerial role. He wrote the 1972 and 1973 SDS Annual Reports.
Eventually promoted to chief inspector of the unit, as a manager HN294 oversaw SDS officers spying on children, taking positions of responsibility and being prosecuted for crimes in their undercover identities alongside activists they were spying on. HN294 was prepared to let one officer travel to Northern Ireland undercover to meet with different branches of the IRA, until the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police overruled him.
HN294 also oversaw the SDS relationship with MI5. The two agencies met to coordinate coverage and share information, but HN294 resisted repeated requests for the SDS to help the Security Service to recruit paid informers.
HN294 left the SDS in March 1974. In a letter to Inquiry Chair John Mitting, a family member of HN294 wrote that when he retired it was on medical grounds partly due to stress-related ill health; when is not known.
The majority of documents released by the Inquiry that mention HN294 are reports by undercover officers countersigned by him during his time as an SDS manager between March 1970-March 1974. Inquiry Chair John Mitting has asserted, however, that in 1968 and 1969 HN294 was deployed undercover, 'against one group which no longer exists and reported on others which also no longer exist'.
At the start of HN294’s career when he was a detective sergeant, HN3095 Bill Furner worked alongside him and recalled his ‘great sense of humour’. Once HN294 became a manager, however, the officers under him had less positive memories of his leadership style.
As a detective inspector, HN103 David Smith found HN294 less sympathetic and more formal than SDS chief inspector HN1251 Phil Saunders. When HN294 became chief inspector himself, HN2041 Anthony Greenslade recalled he ‘virtually ran the [SDS] as a fiefdom’ Greenslade added: ‘I do not think he was very good at management.’
Detective Sergeant
Only one document released by the Inquiry offers evidence supporting Mitting's statement that HN294 was an undercover officer, although, of course, as the Chair he has seen much more evidence than has been made public. The document is a minute sheet from 19 September 1969 that contains praise for HN294's 'depth of knowledge of the I.S. involvement in Northern Irish affairs'.
Although the accompanying report by HN294 has not been released, one possible inference from the comments on the minute sheet is that he was undercover in the International Socialists (IS) at the time it was written. Alternatively, he could have been working in the back office and collated the report from information from undercover officers. Either way, the minute sheet shows that copies of his report were circulated to MI5 and, unusually, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), among others.
On 9 December 1969, HN294 authored another very short report giving details from a 'reliable but extremely delicate source' of a planned trip to Paris by Maoist leader Abhimanyu Manchanda. It is likely that HN294 wrote up this report, perhaps for a colleague who phoned it in to the back office at Scotland Yard, rather than being the source of information in it.
As a manager
On 31 March 1970, a report by an undercover officer was countersigned by HN294, showing that he was by then an SDS manager. On 17 June 1970 'Detective Inspector' HN294 authored a report giving details of ‘the current membership’ of the Kensington and Paddington branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
A month later, HN294 sent a telegram to the commander of Special Branch reporting that members of IS and the International Marxist Group (IMG) were planning to attend an Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) demonstration two days later.
The Counsel to the Inquiry's Tranche 1, Phase 3 opening statement, states that from March 1972 HN294 was signing reports as acting chief inspector, a role he fulfilled until appointed to the post permanently in November 1972. Reports released by the Inquiry back this up, showing he acted up from 28 February 1972. In his role as chief inspector, HN294 wrote and signed the 1972 and 1973 SDS Annual Reports. Several other documents released by the Inquiry associated with him during this period are administrative requests for budgetary disbursements.
HN294 instigated the change from offering undercover officers shared use of a pool of hire cars to buying each of them their own second-hand vehicle to use for the duration of their deployment. The 1973 Annual Report, dated 6 March 1974, shows that HN294’s new process for supplying vehicles had been ‘recently approved’ by the Home Office, but did not yet seem to have been put into action.
Controversial managerial decisions
HN294 signed off reports in which his officers entered private homes, spied on minors took positions of influence and planned to travel on potentially dangerous missions far beyond the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police. Additionally, he supported a course of action after HN298 Michael Scott broke the law as part of his undercover deployment, that he should remain undercover and be prosecuted for obstructing the highway and police officers alongside 13 activists from the Young Liberals rather than withdraw.
This meant that Scott committed a criminal offence, was party to privileged legal information about the activists’ defence strategy, and was convicted under a false identity. Nearly 50 years later, in June 2021, these activists had their convictions quashed as Scott’s evidence to the Inquiry showed a clear miscarriage of justice.
In January 1972, HN294 countersigned a report on a Young Liberals meeting in Peter Hain’s family home, attended by Hain's teenage sisters. In May 1972, HN294 signed another report on teenagers demonstrating under the banner of the Schools Action Union. HN294 signed reports on HN344 'Ian Cameron' being elected to a position of significant influence in the Northern Minority Defence Force (NMDF) and on HN68 'Sean Lynch' influencing decision-making on the Comhairle Ceantair of London Sinn Fein (Provisionals).
Two reports on the NMDF from May 1972 released by the Inquiry are marked as having been signed by HN294, as if he were the author. The actual officer undercover in the group, Ian Cameron, is listed in the appendix with the other members. This was an added layer of subterfuge to obscure the Cameron's true identity as a police officer, even within Special Branch – a technique used in many other SDS reports.
Cameron's deployment hit a snag when he was asked to be one of four NMDF officers to go to Derry to meet with the Provisional and Official IRA factions on 1 June 1972. Although HN294 appears to have been happy to allow Cameron to go, a memo from Special Branch commander HN585 Matthew Rodger to the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police shows Rodger thought it too risky and questioned whether it was an appropriate action for a Metropolitan Police officer to undertake. He directed HN294 to find an excuse for Cameron to use not to go.
The Counsel to the Inquiry’s opening statement suggests HN294 took security of officers very seriously – withdrawing four of them due to safety concerns, as documented in the 1972 Annual Report. The 1973 SDS Annual Report refers the withdrawal of two female undercovers, explained as ‘unavoidable, if the stringent demands of security and the officers [sic] best interests are to be served’.
If HN294 did not feel the ‘stringent demands of security’ were compromised by Cameron travelling to Northern Ireland to meet the IRA, it appears he set a high bar for risk, regardless of what he wrote in the 1972 and 1973 Annual Reports.
The cooperation between Special Branch, the SDS and the Security Service (MI5) had its highs and lows over the years. Much depended on the personality of the head of the SDS and the liaison at MI5, on their respective needs for specific intelligence and sensitivity to crossing the line with regards to their respective remits.
The Inquiry released several MI5 'notes' mentioning HN294. They appear to show a cordial relationship between the SDS and the Security Service. Meeting regularly to discuss their work and offer mutual assistance, HN294 nonetheless resisted the Security Service’s efforts to get the SDS to act as ‘talent spotters’ looking out for disaffected activists for MI5 to recruit as paid informants.
On 13 January 1972, the commander of Special Branch HN585 Matthew Rodger called a meeting between the senior management of Special Branch, the SDS and MI5 to coordinate the two agencies' spying on left-wing groups in London. Attending with chief inspector HN1251 Phil Saunders , HN294 explained which groups had been infiltrated by the SDS and said the unit was looking into infiltrating the Young Liberals and another, redacted, group, which MI5 offered to help with. Minutes were taken by SDS back-office detective sergeant HN103 Dave Smith.
A short, heavily redacted 22 March 1972 MI5 file note concerns the possibility the Security Service working with Special Branch on a specific, redacted matter. A further note from 13 April showed the two agencies decided it would not be possible.
A 30 March 1973 MI5 file note by the F4 branch that dealt with informants discussed HN294’s comments on how the SDS infiltrated the International Socialists and the IMG , mentioning he ‘admitted that they often found that when have [sic] penetrated a branch which they thought would be more interesting, they were disappointed’.
On 13 November 1973, MI5 F4 personnel described a meeting the previous day with HN294 and detective chief superintendent HN1254 Rollo Watts that discussed the SDS intelligence-gathering for specific MI5 queries and finding paid informers for the Security Service. The latter request appears to have been turned down, partly because it had been tried unsuccessfully before. The note ends by observing that Special Branch relied ‘almost exclusively on contacts and informants who are rarely paid’.
On 11 January 1974, MI5 called a meeting with HN294 and detective inspector HN3378 Derek Brice to answer some queries ‘from the F1B desks’ (Northern Ireland). During a post-meeting lunch, MI5 asked the SDS officers again to look out for possible informants for the Security Service to recruit.
HN294’s reaction seems not to have entirely pleased the MI5 author, who noted that HN294 was ‘entirely engrossed in the affairs of the “hairy” squad’. The author continued ‘and although he is personally friendly…’ before a long redaction obscures what one assumes was a critical comment.
The documents referred to in this section call all be found under the Procedural tab and are therefore not referenced here.
Even though HN294 died before the Inquiry began and his cover name was not known, the Metropolitan Police applied to restrict his real name. In support of this application they submitted a risk assessment, the answers to which were published in August 2017 in 'gisted', i.e. very briefly summarised, form that removed any useful details. Two emails from HN294's family were also made public.
On 3 August 2017 Inquiry Chair John Mitting published a Minded To notice that he would restrict HN294's real name, even though he recognised that: 'There is no risk to [HN294's family's] safety and minimal risk of intrusive interest in them even if his real name were to be published.'
Ironically, Mitting decided, however, that there was not enough legal justification to breach HN294's family's Article 8 right to respect for their private life. The Counsel to the Inquiry (CTI) published an accompanying explanatory note on the same day.
The non-state non-police core participants made submissions opposing Mitting's Minded To notice on the grounds that he had not given proper weight to the need for open justice, on 5 October 2017. A hearing on this was held on 21 November 2017. Mitting made an order granting anonymity to HN294 on 5 December 2017. A restriction order over HN294's real name was issued on 8 December 2017.
An updated CTI explanatory note on the 3 August 2017 Minded To notice was published on 13 September 2018.