A public inquiry into the conduct of undercover police officers has heard explosive testimony that two senior Metropolitan Police officers overseeing covert operations were "horribly and incredibly" racist.
Whistleblower Details Racist Culture in Undercover Unit
Peter Francis, a former officer with the secretive Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), gave evidence to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which is examining the actions of officers who infiltrated more than 1,000 political groups between 1968 and 2010. Francis, who spied on anti-racist and leftwing campaigners from 1993 to 1997, is the only former member of the unit to have blown the whistle on its activities.
He told the inquiry, chaired by retired judge Sir John Mitting, that he heard "racist banter" among undercover officers in the 1990s. He singled out two senior figures for their particularly egregious conduct.
Allegations Against Senior Officers
Francis described Detective Chief Superintendent Robert Potter, a senior Special Branch officer who oversaw the SDS, as "horribly racist". He alleged that Potter, nicknamed "Potty Bob", regularly used the N-word when discussing black justice campaigns and emphasised the need to stop them. Potter, who died after leaving the force in 1993 following a separate racist incident in a bingo hall, had previously denied the allegations.
The second officer, known only as HN86 after being granted anonymity by the inquiry, was the head of the SDS during part of Francis's deployment. Francis stated HN86 was "incredibly racist" and viewed black justice campaigners as being incapable of independent thought, suggesting they were being manipulated by leftwing groups. He claimed HN86 used explicitly racist slurs, referring to campaigners as "monkeys".
Surveillance of the Stephen Lawrence Family Campaign
The inquiry was established in 2014 after Francis revealed to the Guardian that the SDS had covertly monitored the campaign of Stephen Lawrence's family. The family was fighting for a proper investigation into the teenager's 1993 murder and to bring his killers to justice.
Francis testified that Special Branch, which directed the undercover unit, was "100% racist" in its attitude towards the Lawrence family. He said the branch wrongly believed the family could not have organised their campaign themselves and must have been directed by others. The Metropolitan Police has since apologised for spying on Doreen and Neville Lawrence and their supporters.
The inquiry is now examining in detail how and why the Lawrence family was targeted. It is also scrutinising the wider work of the SDS, which used around 139 undercover officers to spy on tens of thousands of predominantly leftwing activists over four decades.
Further Allegations and Denials
Francis also made claims about the SDS's only black officer at the time, Trevor Morris, who infiltrated the Anti-Nazi League and Socialist Workers Party. He alleged that HN86 distrusted Morris because he was "one of them" and questioned whether he would pass on information about black campaigns.
HN86 denies all allegations and is pursuing legal action that could prevent him from being questioned by the inquiry. Meanwhile, some activists Francis spied on have accused him of fabrication and exaggeration, particularly regarding claims of violent confrontations with fascists.
The testimony from Francis, which will continue over four days, presents some of the most damning evidence yet to the long-running public inquiry, painting a picture of a covert unit operating with deeply ingrained racist attitudes at its highest levels.
