The police watchdog has recently widened its investigation into claims that five officers were involved in spying on the family of Stephen Lawrence, the teenager murdered by a racist gang.



The investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is examining allegations that the Metropolitan Police planted an undercover officer in “the Lawrence family camp”.



At the moment, however, it is unclear how far up the Met’s chain of command knowledge of the espionage went - a question that presumably the IPCC is looking at.



Two officers involved in the police’s covert work have said that information about the Lawrences that had been gathered by the Met’s undercover unit was passed to, or requested by, the senior echelons of Scotland Yard.



The IPCC started its inquiry last year following the publication of a report by an independent QC, Mark Ellison, into undercover policing.

Commissioned by home secretary Theresa May, Ellison had reported that the Met’s undercover unit had collected information on the Lawrences, at a time when the public inquiry headed by Sir William Macpherson was delving into the Met’s failure to investigate their son’s murder.

Ellison had said the intelligence could be seen to have improperly given the Met a “secret advantage” over the family, as Scotland Yard was facing heavy criticism over its inept handling of the investigation into Stephen’s murder.

The IPCC has said the five officers are being investigated for alleged gross misconduct, as they could potentially have undermined Macpherson’s inquiry and public confidence.

They are :

- Richard Walton, the Met’s current head of counter-terrorism (who held a more junior rank at the time of the Macpherson inquiry);

- Bob Lambert, then a detective inspector running the operations of the SDS (see background on him here);

- Colin Black, then Special Branch operations commander;

- two unnamed officers who have been described as being “within the management structure” of the Met’s undercover unit, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS).

The IPCC inquiry is focussing on a meeting between Walton and the undercover officer, known only as N81, in August 1998. The undercover officer, then working for the SDS, spent several years infiltrating a group that supported the family’s campaign to persuade the police to investigate their son’s murder properly.



According to Ellison, Walton was a member of the senior team at Scotland Yard that was helping to formulate the Met’s defence of its botched investigation into the Lawrence murder.

According to an account published in Ellison’s report (see page 232 here), Lambert said he “facilitated” the meeting between Walton and the undercover officer, N81, “at the request of his senior management”.

Lambert “had been told that the purpose of the meeting was so that Mr Walton could fully brief the Commissioner. He said the request had come to Commander Special Branch and was delegated down to him.”

He said Walton “was working directly for the Commissioner in relation to the Metropolitan Police response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry”.

Shortly after Walton’s meeting with the undercover officer, Lambert wrote a note at the time recording that the meeting had been “a fascinating and valuable exchange of information concerning an issue which, according to DI Walton, continues to dominate the Commissioner’s agenda on a daily basis.”

According to Lambert’s note, Walton had said the “in-depth discussion…...would be of great value as he continued to prepare a draft submission to the [Macpherson] Inquiry on behalf of the Commissioner.” Walton has disputed this version of events.



In his account published by Ellison (see page 232 here), N81, the undercover officer who met Walton, said that “... I was informed, at the height of the Macpherson inquiry, that my reporting was going straight to Sir Paul Condon’s desk each morning via [another officer], and [a sergeant in the SDS] passed on to me from [that other officer] ‘congratulations from the Commissioner for your excellent reporting...’.”

Paul Condon, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at the time, has issued the strongest possible denial. He has said that “that at no stage did I ever authorise, or encourage, or know about any action by any undercover officer in relation to Mr and Mrs Lawrence or their friends or supporters or the Macpherson inquiry hearings. Had I known I would have stopped this action immediately as inappropriate.”

Now a peer, he said he made this statement in “the House of Lords because for me it is the equivalent of saying it on oath and I am aware of the full consequences of any attempt to mislead the House of Lords.” (See here for a report of his statement).

Condon, who headed the Met between 1993 and 2000, told the Ellison review (see page 254 here) that he had no knowledge of anything to do with the Lawrences and undercover work. “I cannot remember a single conversation or piece of paper that linked undercover and the Lawrences in any shape or form…”.

He has added that there was “no justification for anything which is a sort of them and us tactical advantage over the Lawrences in any way.”

For a detailed analysis of the allegations about the spying on the Lawrences and the IPCC inquiry, see this new blog from the Undercover Research Group, a resource on covert infiltration of political groups.