Police criticised over Mark Kennedy’s undercover tapes

Date: 4 April 2012

In a report published today, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said there were failings by the police to disclose covert tape recordings made by undercover police officer, Mark Kennedy, to the environmentalists prosecuted for their alleged part in a plan to occupy Ratcliffe coal-fired power station in 2009.  However, the IPCC did not make findings that the actions of individual police officers and members of police staff amounted to misconduct.

Responding to this, Bindmans partner, Mike Schwarz who represented the 26 environmentalists prosecuted and eventually cleared of all allegations, said:

“It is not a surprise that the IPCC report was unable to detect serious failing on behalf of Nottinghamshire police. As the report states (para 13): ' there (are) a number of conflicting accounts surrounding what documentation was handled, by whom and when'. When the CPS investigated themselves, they came to the same conclusion. So did the police when investigating themselves. What we know is that - as the Lord Chief Justice said when quashing the convictions of the 20 environmentalists who did stand trial - the elementary principles of justice were not followed and led to a serious miscarriage of justice in that case, and a possible miscarriage of justice for the 6 whose trial collapsed. We are still no closer to discovering if other failures to disclosure have led to other miscarriages of justice. And there is nothing in this, or the other dozen enquiries the police and CPS set up, to reassure the public that the catalogue of failings will not happen again. There needs to be a single public enquiry, not these piecemeal reports into microscopic aspects of cases.”

Please click on the links below for the related press coverage:

Watchdog criticises police over Mark Kennedy's undercover tapes (The Guardian, 4 April 2012)

Mark Kennedy: 'No misconduct by Nottinghamshire Police' (BBC News, 4 April 2012)

Police who hid role of undercover officer are cleared of misconduct (Evening Standard, 4 April 2012)

'No misconduct' over undercover Pc Mark Kennedy (The Independent, 4 April 2012) 

Despite secret recordings, no one to face discipline over undercover police affair (The Independent, 5 April 2012)

Ratcliffe-on-Soar activists furious as no disciplinary charges brought over withheld tapes (The Guardian, 5 April 2012)

Unmasking of Mark Kennedy lets in some light, but not enough (The Guardian, 13 April 2012)