Following this weeks dramatic revelation that the Crown Prosecution Service suppressed crucial evidence, an independent inquiry has now been launched. The revelation concerned the trials of the 26 climate campaigners accused of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe on Soar power station. The suppressed evidence was that which was covertly obtained by undercover officer Mark Kennedy.
In the first trial of twenty of the campaigners, in late 2010, no suggestion was made that any such evidence existed. The twenty were convicted, but their convictions have since been ruled unsafe on the basis of the undercover evidence.
In early 2011, the trial of the further six campaigners collapsed just days before it was due to start following a request for information relating to undercover operations. At the time the CPS argued the collapse was due to ‘new information’, implying they had no prior knowledge of Kennedy’s involvement. However, it now transpires senior CPS figures knew at least as early as May 2009!
The inquiry launched today by Keir Starmer, head of the CPS, has yet to be fully detailed. We hope it will at least provide answers on what role the secretive police unit (who employed Kennedy) played in the handling of evidence. Did they lean on the CPS so they could maintain their invisibility?
However, Starmer’s inquiry falls far short of the wide ranging public inquiry No Police Spies continues to fight for.
How do we know the malpractice witnessed in the Ratcliffe case wasn’t the police and CPS’s standard approach in dealing with undercover operatives? Who knows how many other protesters have been unfairly convicted in order to protect the UK’s secret police?
Furthermore, what about the many other moral and ethical concerns this issue raises? The systematic sexual misconduct, links between police and big business, and officers acting as agent provocateurs?
These questions will only be answered through a public and wide ranging independent inquiry. Our campaign may be growing stronger, but is far from over.
Nows a great time to get your MP onboard: find out how here.