This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Campaigners who were infiltrated by police spies have walked out of a public inquiry hearing into the undercover infiltration of political groups, calling for the “naive, old-fashioned” judge leading it to be replaced.

The walkout by at least 60 campaigners and their lawyers on Wednesday was the culmination of months of angry complaints that the delayed inquiry was unfairly allowing the police to cover up their wrongdoing.

A barrister representing the campaigners criticised the inquiry’s judge, Sir John Mitting, as “the usual white, upper middle-class, elderly gentleman whose life experiences are a million miles away from those who were spied upon”.

Lady Lawrence, whose family campaign to find out who killed her son Stephen was put under surveillance, criticised Mitting for “turning what should be a transparent, accountable and public hearing into an inquiry cloaked in secrecy and anonymity”.



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She echoed calls for Mitting to resign or for him to sit with a panel “which understands my concerns about policing and what I went through. Anything less than this will lead me to consider carefully whether I should continue to participate in this inquiry.”

Theresa May, while home secretary, set up the inquiry in 2014 following the “profoundly shocking and disturbing” revelations that a Scotland Yard undercover unit had spied on the Lawrence family and its supporters while they campaigned for police to carry out a proper investigation into Stephen’s murder.

The inquiry is also due to examine how the undercover officers frequently deceived women into long-term sexual relationships, stole the identities of dead children and concealed crucial evidence in court cases.

May had said the inquiry, which has cost £9m so far, was expected to have been completed this year, but it is not due to begin holding substantive hearings until next year. Little evidence has been published so far.

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The delay has been caused by the police submitting large numbers of legal applications to keep secret the identities of the undercover officers who have infiltrated more than 1,000 political groups since 1968.

At a series of hearings, victims of the espionage have opposed the applications, accusing Mitting of allowing bogus excuses from officers who want to remain hidden.

Phillippa Kaufmann, the QC for more than 200 people who were spied on, said Mitting had been ignoring their concerns and giving “scant and largely uninformative” reasons for granting the applications.

She added the victims “are not prepared actively to participate in a process where their presence is mere window dressing lacking all substance and meaning which would achieve nothing other than to lend the process a legitimacy it does not have”.

She added that if Mitting allowed the applications, the misconduct of the spies would remain secret forever.

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She called for a panel “representing a proper cross-section of our society and in particular including individuals who have a proper understanding” of racial and sexual discrimination to sit with Mitting. She said Mitting had a “very narrow” experience of life.

After the walkout, which left few people remaining in the inquiry room, Mitting gave no reaction, calling for the next round of submissions on the legal applications.

Peter Francis, the undercover officer who has become a whistleblower, argued for the identities of officers to be disclosed, while also criticising Mitting for his “opaque” reasoning.

The campaigners said they were not leaving the inquiry permanently.

An inquiry spokesperson said: “The undercover policing inquiry was set up due to serious and widespread concerns about the behaviour and use of undercover police officers. Our task is to discover the truth.