Stephen Lawrence Justice Campaign

Stephen Lawrence was a Black teenager who was murdered by a racist gang on 22 April 1993 in Eltham, South London. His friend Duwayne Brooks OBE survived the attack. The justice campaign led to the Macpherson Inquiry which found the Metropolitan Police to be institutionally racist. However, it emerged that the campaign had been targeted by several undercovers.

Lawrence's murder was part of a spike in racist attacks and killings in London, including the death of Ricky Reel. Fingers were pointed at the presence of the British National Party headquarters in nearby Welling. Numerous demonstrations took place, including the ‘Battle of Welling’ on 16 October 1993 when police clashed with anti-racist demonstrators as they marched on the BNP headquarters. It was attended and reported on by multiple Special Demonstration Squad undercovers.

The campaign for justice which followed Lawrence’s murder was pivotal in policing history, calling out racism and corruption within the police investigations of such killings. It led to the Macpherson Inquiry of 1999 which found the Metropolitan Police to be institutionally racist. There have been multiple re-investigations into the murder over the years as more and more evidence has emerged, and it has proven to be of considerable embarrassment to the Met.

It had long been argued that the Metropolitan Police was not fully forthcoming with regard to the police investigation into Lawrence’s death. It subsequently emerged that the police had withheld from the Macpherson Inquiry evidence of how police corruption had tainted the investigation. 

In 2013, Peter Francis, HN43 Peter Francis 'Pete Black' HN43 Peter Francis was a SDS undercover officer from September 1993 to September 1997. He is variously known as Pete Black, Peter Johnson and Pete Daley and infiltrated Youth Against Racism in Europe. As a whistleblower he revealed to The Guardian that he had been spying on Stephen Lawrence's family. Francis is a core participant in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.  a former Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) undercover turned whistle-blower, came forward to say he had been tasked with finding dirt on the Lawrence family in the run up to the Macpherson Inquiry hearings, and that he had argued for details of SDS spying to be disclosed to Macpherson but his managers refused. 

In the wake of all this, the Home Office asked barrister Mark Ellison KC, who had prosecuted some of the cases, to review the emerging material. This resulted in the Stephen Lawrence Independent Review, which was published in March 2014. Stephen Lawrence Independent Review The Stephen Lawrence Independent Review (SLIR) was established by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, in 2013, to look into claims that the Metropolitan Police had withheld evidence of police corruption from the 1999 Macpherson Inquiry. It also looked at claims from Special Demonstration Squad whistleblower HN43 Peter Francis that there was inappropriate targeting of the justice campaign by undercover officers. Its findings lead to the Undercover Policing Inquiry being established. Full page: Stephen Lawrence Independent Review  

Among the review's damning criticisms was the public disclosure of a meeting between senior Metropolitan Police officers preparing the Commssioner's response to Macpherson Inquiry and the undercover HN81 ‘Dave Hagan’. HN81 'David Hagan' HN81 'David Hagan' was an SDS officer between 1996 and 2001 who targeted the Socialist Workers Party, Class War, Movement Against the Monarchy and Movement for Justice. He is referred to extensively in the Ellison Review about the targeting of the family of Stephen Lawrence.  Hagan had infiltrated the Movement for Justice, a campaign group who were close to Duwayne Brooks at the time. Facilitating the meeting was then SDS head HN10 Robert Lambert. HN10 Robert Lambert 'Bob Robinson' Bob Lambert, using the cover name 'Bob Robinson' infiltrated Animal Rights campaigns as a SDS officer between 1983 and 1988. He fathered a child whilst undercover, with 'Jacqui'. He was also involved in the planting of an incendiary device, which resulted in two other people going to prison. He returned to the SDS as a manager (1993-1998) and oversaw further controversies. He later became an academic in the field of 'Terrorist Studies'.

Ellison was highly critical of the closeness of 'Hagan' to the family justice campaign and considered the meeting Lambert convened ‘wrong headed’ and inappropriate. Ellison also recommended that there be a public inquiry to effectively examine the role of the Special Demonstration Squad.

The bombshell report was the final straw in the spycops scandal, leading to then Home Secretary Theresa May announcing the creation of the Undercover Policing Inquiry in the immediate wake of the publishing of Ellison’s work.