A cover document is a document held by an undercover in their false name, used to bolster their fake identity. Often, these were built on the back of the identity of a deceased child that the undercover had stolen. Stealing a dead child’s identity enabled the undercover officer to apply for formal documents such as driving licences.
At the start of the Special Demonstration Squad, the undercovers were not provided with documents in their cover name. It was only when undercovers began acquiring cover accommodation that material in their cover name was created, namely their rent books.
Throughout the first years of the SDS, there does not appear to have been systematic provision of cover documents to deployed officers. In the early 1970s, HN45 ‘Dave Robertson’HN45 'Dave Robertson''Dave Robertson' is the assumed name of an undercover in the Special Demonstration Squad, active between October 1970 and 6 February 1973. He infiltrated Maoist groups connected with activist Abhimanyu Manchanda, including the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League, British Vietnam Solidarity Front and early meetings of the Women's LIberation Front. Robertson was withdrawn after 6 February 1973 when he was recognised as a police officer by a friend of one of the people he was spying on. In the mid-1980s he returned to work for the SDS for three years in a variety of administrative roles.Full page: HN45 'Dave Robertson' and HN348 ‘Sandra Davies’HN348 'Sandra Davies'HN348 ‘Sandra Davies’ was a Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer who infiltrated the Women's Liberation Front, later known as the Revolutionary Women's Union, from February 1971 for two years. The Inquiry has released nearly 80 intelligence reports produced in her name, none of which justify her deployment, according to Inquiry Chair John Mitting. She was withdrawn as a precaution in February 1973 after a fellow SDS officer’s cover was blown. Her real name has been restricted. Full page: HN348 'Sandra Davies' were not given any.
Other than undercovers not carrying warrant cards, practice relating to cover documents was initially ad hoc and sporadic. The first known use of official documents in cover names was in 1970, when both HN326 ‘Doug Edwards’HN326 'Doug Edwards'HN326 ‘Doug Edwards’ was the cover name of an undercover police officer in the Special Demonstration Squad between November 1968 and May 1971. He infiltrated the Independent Labour Party and anarchist groups including the West Ham Anarchists. His real name has been restricted; he is referred to in the Undercover Policing Inquiry as HN326. Full page: HN326 'Doug Edwards' and HN340 ‘Andy Bailey’HN340 ‘Andy Bailey’HN340 is the nominal given to the former undercover officer with the Special Demonstration Squad ‘Andy Bailey’. He infiltrated the North London Red Circle and spied on the Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign, later known as the Irish Solidarity Campaign, between July 1970 and June 1972. One of the first two SDS officers to travel overseas while undercover, to the Red Europe conference in Brussels in November 1970, he was also the first undercover to be withdrawn because of a possible risk to his safety, in mid-1972 after the landlady of his cover accommodation reported overhearing a threat to him.Full page: HN340 ‘Andy Bailey’ were issued with temporary passports to enable them to go to the Red Europe conference in Brussels. HN333HN333HN333 is the cipher given to a former SDS undercover officer who was deployed into 'a left-wing group which no longer exists' for nine months between December 1968 and mid-1969. Now retired after a ‘long and distinguished career’ in the Metropolitan Police, HN333 has been allowed to maintain complete anonymity by Inquiry Chair John Mitting, who made both his real and cover name and the name of the group he spied on subject to restriction orders.Full page: HN333 had previously unsuccessfully attempted to get a passport in his cover name. Towards the end of the tranche one periodTranche one covered the period from the founding of the Special Demonstration Squad in 1968 to approximately 1982.Tranche one (overview), HN80 ‘Colin Clark’HN80HN80 'Colin Clark''Colin Clark' was the assumed name of an undercover SDS officer who joined the SDS in September 1976. From March 1977 he infiltrated severral north London branches and the national office of the Socialist Workers Party, helping to organise the 1981 Right to Work march. He also infiltrated the Anti-Nazi League before his deployment ended in March 1982. His real name has been restricted. and HN126 ‘Paul Gray’HN126 ‘Paul Gray’‘Paul Gray’ was the fake name of an undercover who infiltrated north-west London branches of the Socialist Workers Party and Anti-Nazi League and spied on pickets at the Grunwick dispute. He joined the SDS in December 1977 and was active undercover until at least April 1982. were also provided with passports in their cover names.
Before 1971, some undercover officers told the Inquiry, they carried their real driving licences even while deployed. For instance, HN336 ‘Dick Epps’HN336 'Dick Epps'‘Dick Epps’ is the cover name used by the former SDS undercover officer deployed into the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, Stop the Seventy Tour and the International Marxist Group from late 1968 to mid-1970. For the Undercover Policing Inquiry and Operation Herne, Epps is referred to by the cypher HN336. In 2002, Epps appeared on the True Spies television documentary, using the pseudonym ‘Dan’. Full page: HN336 'Dick Epps' gave evidence that he ‘didn't obtain a driving licence even though my false job was as a lorry driver’.
In 1971, the use of driving licences applied for in their cover names began to become a common tactic, and standard practice from 1972 onward, with most undercovers using this method.
As well as driving licences being used in the mid 1970s, undercovers including Dick Epps, HN343 ‘John Clinton’HN343 'John Clinton'HN343 is the nominal given to the undercover officer 'John Clinton', who infiltrated the Croydon branch of the International Socialists between October 1971 and March 1972 and the Fulham and Hammersmith branch from November 1972. He left the Special Demonstration Squad of his own choice in September 1974. Documents relating to Clinton released by the Inquiry only cover the period 13 October 1971 to 14 January 1974, so the dates of his deployments into specific groups are estimates.Full page: HN343 'John Clinton' and HN351 ‘Jeff Slater’HN351 'Jeff Slater'‘Jeff Salter’ is the assumed name of an undercover officer who joined the SDS in Spring 1974. He infiltrated various north London groups of the International Socialists from November 1974, including the Tottenham branch. His deployment ended at the start of April 1975 at his own request. His real name has been restricted. noted they obtained library cards, Clinton noting this was the only cover document he had. Other documents that undercovers secured to support their adopted identities included a doctors’ card (HN298 ‘Michael Scott'HN298 'Michael Scott'‘Michael Scott’ is the assumed name of a former SDS undercover officer who infiltrated the Putney branch of the Young Liberals, Croydon anarchist group Commitment, the Little Ilford branch of the Workers Revolutionary Party and the central London branch of the Anti-Internment League between 1972 and 1976. In 1972, he did not reveal his true identity to the court when convicted alongside three anti-apartheid activists, leading to their convictions being overturned in 2023. The reliability of his testimony about the Young Liberals was challenged in the Inquiry by core participant Peter Hain.) and an employment contract (HN347 ‘Alex Sloan’HN347 'Alex Sloan''Alex Sloan' is the cover name used by a former undercover officer with the Special Demonstration Squad who was deployed into Irish National Liberation Solidarity Front from 1971. For the purposes of the Undercover Policing Inquiry and Operation Herne, he is referred to by the cipher HN347. The Inquiry has restricted his real name.).
Warrant cards
One document all police are supposed to carry, but which posed a risk of exposure to undercovers, was the warrant card. Practice on carrying warrant cards is unclear. One of the earliest undercovers, HN300 ‘Don de Freitas’HN330 'Don de Freitas''Don de Freitas' was the cover name of Detective Sergeant HN330 who was an undercover officer with the SDS between September and October 1968. He infiltrated the Havering branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign with HN334 'Margaret White'.Full page: HN330 'Don de Freitas' continued to carry his. However, HN345 ‘Peter Fredericks’HN345 'Peter Fredericks'‘Peter Fredericks’ was the cover name of a former Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer who attempted to infiltrate Black Power organisations and groups campaigning for Bangladeshi independence in 1971. His SDS and Special Branch careers were short; he had left the SDS by the mid-1970s. In the Undercover Policing Inquiry, he is known by the nominal HN345.Full page: HN345 'Peter Fredericks' gave evidence that he stopped carrying a wallet with his warrant card in it when he joined Special Branch as he realised it was ‘a source of danger’.First Witness Statement of HN345 ‘Peter Fredericks’, given in the UCPI, Tranche 1, Phase 1, 20 Aug 2019.View Document HN336 ‘Dick Epps’ said he carried his warrant card, but kept it hidden.
It is not clear whether undercovers were told to stop carrying their warrant cards as a matter of policy or recognised it as a matter of common sense. The issue is not particularly addressed in statements, and HN343 ‘John Clinton’ is the only undercover to explicitly mentioned he did not carry his warrant card in the Tranche One era.
