These cases concerns the deployments of officers who infiltrated social and environmental justice campaigns:
Mike Chitty
Matt Rayner
James Straven
Rob Harrison
Antony ‘Bobby’ Lewis
The deployments of these officers span well over 20 years, from Bob Lambert’s infiltration of several groups in the 1980s up to the unmasking of Mark Kennedy in October 2010. The time span of the abuse, and the high number of officers involved (including further officers), completely undermines any suggestion that this was a matter of individual police officers ‘going rogue’.
There are no circumstances in which it would be acceptable for an undercover police officer to engage in intimate relationships with either targets or with members of the public under the guise of their undercover identity.
– from Where We Stand
While the officers are individually guilty of immoral conduct, the command structures (and those who head them) must take responsibility for the abuse committed by their officers. At best, these command structures turned a blind eye, and at worst, they instigated and perpetuated an institutional prejudice against women and against social and environmental justice campaigners, effectively orchestrating and allowing the abuse.
> Read more: The Command Structures
It’s important to understand that:
- there are more officers involved than those which relate to these cases;
and that
- other legal cases being brought by other groups or individuals may also concern the above officers.
> Read more: Further officers / Other cases, other lives
One of the key reasons the people affected are bringing these cases is to expose what has happened, with the aim of preventing it happening to anyone else in the future. Our current assumption is that there are still undercover officers who are currently in intimate relationships with members of the public. There has not, to date, been a statement or investigation which is full or open enough to give sufficient reassurance that this practice has ended.
We call for a clear and unambiguous statement that the abuse has ceased; the past to be thoroughly and openly investigated; and action and change to prevent these human rights abuses from ever happening again.
– from Where We Stand
External links about the officers
The following external links give further information about each of the officers linked to these cases:
Andy Coles – “Andy ‘Van’ Davey”
- Profile on Public Interest Investigations Powerbase
- The Guardian – 12th May 2017
- Channel Four news 12th May 2017
Bob Lambert – “Bob Robinson”
- Indymedia – October 2011
- The Guardian – 16 October 2011
- The Guardian – 23 October 2011
- Spinwatch – 23 October 2011
John Dines – “John Barker”
Mark Jenner – “Mark Cassidy”
- The Guardian – 1 March 2013
- Big Issue In The North – 11 March 2013
- Fighting Talk blog – 19 March 2014
Jim Boyling – “Jim Sutton”
Mark Kennedy – “Mark Stone”
“Carlo Neri”
- Public Interest Investigations Powerbase
- Guardian – 18 January 2016
- The Guardian – 15 September 2016
“Marco Jacobs”
Read more:
> The Case – Our Stories
> The Case – The Command Structures
> The Case > Beyond this case – Further officers
> The Case > Beyond this case – Issues and corruption







