Courts quash conviction from 1997 as a result of involvement of undercover police
This week, Southwark Crown Court allowed the appeals against convictions of John Jordan, an environmental and social justice campaigner, prosecuted as a result of his involvement in a protest in 1996. The court found that the trial process, from start to finish, had been tainted by the involvement of an undercover police officer. That officer - Jim Boyling, known as ‘Jim Sutton’ - was involved in the protest in which John Jordan participated, was arrested and prosecuted for an offence as well, was party to confidential legal discussions between John Jordan and his lawyers by pretending to be a genuine co-defendant and then gave evidence in court at the trial in his assumed identity.
For more details see: Prosecutors forced to admit covert operation caused miscarriage of justice (the Guardian 25th of September 2014).
Mike Schwarz, John Jordan’s lawyer in 1997 and since, said:
"This case has disturbing and significant features which are different to the other 50-odd miscarriages caused by undercover policing and quashed by the courts. All the other cases involved police officer Mark Kennedy and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit and were recent. John Jordan’s case involves Jim Boyling and the Special Demonstration Squad and took place in the 1990s. It involved an undercover police officer deliberately breaching lawyer-client confidentiality and giving evidence, as a defendant, in court under oath in an assumed name and identity.
But all these cases share two characteristics. They have been exposed by the efforts of campaigners, journalists and those close to and duped by the police officers, often at great personal cost. And the police, prosecution and authorities have done all they can to resist exposure. This case is not over yet. The BBC, Guardian and Press Association have joined John Jordan’s efforts to get a full explanation of what happened in the 1990s and what, if anything, is being done now to identify those responsible and stop this happening again."
