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bob lambert, late of the met police and london greenpeace

Miss-Shelf said:
I am astounded (don't know why) that he has a respectable career with this behaviour behind him
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Bob Lambert is not some aberrant ‘bad apple’ who somehow slipped through the psychological screening - he is an exemplar of a successful (as they see it) 46 year long espionage programme which continues to this day. Just ask Debbie Vincent - oh wait, you can't, as she's been banged up on cooked-up conspiracy charges thanks in part to Bob Lambert's spycop heirs.

Bob Lambert was a Special Branch officer from at least 1980 until 2006, when it was merged with ATB into Counter Terrorism Command. He remained at CTC until retiring from the Met in 2007. That's a minimum of 27 years as a spook. At most he was a uniformed bobby for three years (and that's disputed).

After his undercover deployment ended, Bob Lambert transferred to E Squad, which concerned itself with international investigations, before returning to SDS as its operational head. He recruited, trained and mentored other officers picked to be police spies, including Jim Boyling. He was close enough to Boyling that he took him with him when he set up the Muslim Contact Unit in 2002.

Consider former Special Branch chief, Roger Pearce - ex-SDS. Mike Ferguson, sometime boss of SDS - who himself had worked undercover. Peter Clarke - ex-head of CTC who congratulated SDS officers. Well-known senior officers such as Cressida Dick, John Yates, Andy Hayman, Bob Quick - each held the post of Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations, which had direct oversight of Special Branch and SDS (and subsequently NPOIU and the other national units). Patricia Gallan, the safe pair of hands who headed up the original (Met) investigation into undercover policing, before she was replaced by Derbyshire's Mick Creedon to give the appearance of an external probe (despite virtually the entire investigation being run and directed by Met officers). Gallan's old chum from Merseyside Bernard Hogan-Howe being made Met Commissioner, with nary a murmur about his whitewash report on undercover policing that his boss at HMIC Denis O'Connor binned as being too feeble even for the policing inspectorate.

And on, and on, and on.

Virtually the entire top tier of British policing is implicated in this, either through active involvement or through silent complicity.
 
Miss-Shelf said:
I am astounded (don't know why) that he has a respectable career with this behaviour behind him
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Plus his post-Met quasi-academic career has alighted at most of the familiar stops on the ‘terrorism studies’ gravy train route: St Andrews University's Centre for the Study of Terrorism & Political Violence; setting up the EMRC at Exeter's Politics Department; a tasty sinecure at teflon spook John Grieve's Centre for Policing & Public Safety (formerly at Bucks poly, now at London Met); articles for respectable journals like Critical Studies on Terrorism and Journal of Terrorism Research; invitations to speak on panels; the go-to cuddly cop even for lefties like UAF (until his exposure); a regular contributor to right-on publications like The Guardian and openDemocracy (again, until the awkward exposure).

And so on.

You only have to look at his academic colleagues - many of them former Met big-hitters themselves - to see that the revolving door hasn't stopped turning, any more than it had in the 1980s for the likes of Terry Carrol and Sid Nicholson, who traded in being Met flatfoots for better paid jobs running corporate security for McDonald's (where they made use of their contacts in Special Branch to access confidential intelligence on London Greenpeace activists).
 
the CPS said: "In reviewing the case we have considered whether there is sufficient evidence to allow charges of rape, indecent assault, procuring a woman to have sexual intercourse by false pretences, misconduct in public office and breaches of the Official Secrets Act.
"Having carefully considered all the available evidence, provided at the end of a thorough investigation, we have determined that there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for any offences against any of the officers."


theres plenty of evidence for all of those to be tested by a court - theyre basically acting as judge and jury and ruling against.

i dont know how the CPS works or what its remit is, but this doesnt look like just due process to me
 
Insufficient evidence in the context of a charging decision means that the evidence available is incapable of establishing beyond reasonable doubt that an offence was committed.

The actions of the officers, while totally reprehensible, were not criminal. The CPS could have video recordings of everything that happened and there would still be insufficient evidence to charge.
 
MAD-T-REX said:
Insufficient evidence in the context of a charging decision means that the evidence available is incapable of establishing beyond reasonable doubt that an offence was committed.
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Not quite.
It means that in the opinion of a CPS manager (usually a barrister), that the evidence isn't strong enough. There is no hard and fast test, only interpretation of law and precedent, all carried out by value-laden human beings.

I also seem to recall an issue of the H.O.S.B. that mentioned a 40%+ overturn rate on questioned decisions a couple of years ago.

The actions of the officers, while totally reprehensible, were not criminal. The CPS could have video recordings of everything that happened and there would still be insufficient evidence to charge.
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The evidence for such actions has been decided to be insufficient. Whether the evidence actually is insufficient, only time will tell.
 
Having sex while he was meant to be working must be misconduct in public office; unless rape, indecent assault and procuring a woman to have sexual intercourse under false pretences was part of his job description.
 
Jacqui and ‘Bob Robinson’'s son has been paid “substantial compensation” by the Met “after the man said in a lawsuit that he suffered psychiatric damage after discovering, at the age of 26, that his father was not the committed leftwing protester he had been led to believe.”

The Met settled the lawsuits from TBS and his mother without disclosing any official documents that would shed further light on Lambert’s activities. TBS told the Guardian that there was “a sense that the Met were still trying to cover up as much as they can”.

He added: “It feels as though as they are not genuinely wanting to put a wrong right. I don’t think they have ever really been that concerned about that. They were quite happy to leave all this in the past and not let anyone know the truth.”
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www.theguardian.com

Met police pay compensation to man fathered by undercover officer

Force pays confidential sum to man who discovered at the age of 26 that his father, Bob Lambert, was a police officer rather than a leftwing activist
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Guess that's one way to defund the police.
 
Worth noting that Evans and Lewis repeat the allegation that police spy (and subsequently police-funded academic) Robert Lambert was responsible for one of three fires set simultaneously at three different branches of Debenham's by the members of an ALF cell which his infiltrated set up.

DEBENHAMS ARSON MAP.jpeg
Three fires, one night... But only two arsonists..?

The cell was, by Lambert's account, made up of three people, including himself. The other two people were convicted and imprisoned based on his intelligence.

During his stint undercover, Lambert allegedly set fire to a branch of Debenhams as part of a campaign against the fur trade – but he denies the claim.
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The Debenhams operation caused an estimated £8.5million worth of trading and material losses. The damage at the Harrow branch - which is where Lambert is accused of having set his incendiary device - came to £340,000 alone.
 
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As I understand it, after the two activists fingered by Lambert were arrested in Tottenham, one of them had an ‘appropriate adult’ sit in on his police interview.

You'll never guess who that was.

That particular activist was arrested three times in relation to the provocations - or outright actions - of SDS officers: over the Debenhams operation planned by Lambert, in relation to the shotgun obtained on the instructions of ‘Rayner’ (then working undercover under the command of Lambert), and for a smoke bomb thrown by Dines (whose deployment in the animal rights milieu overlapped with Lambert's).

And why? Because supposed superspycop Lambert had failed in his primary mission, of nailing key ALF figure Ronnie Lee*. To justify his continuing deployment Lambert used his charisma and pushiness to entrap impressionable younger campaigners, and to cajole them into ever-more risky activity.

And so a legend was born - shortly followed by a son.

* An additional target for the deployment was, I am led to believe, a certain other legally-minded person then prominent within the animal rights movement who was able to come out entirely unscathed and without any convictions, and who subsequently carved a niche consulting role not unadjacent to the police.
 
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That's a son who as a very young child accompanied Lambert to meetings with his handler. Imagine the awkward silences under oath if questions about that are asked of Lambert's cover officer and superiors at the UCPI.

And who discreetly bankrolled the sorry, a bit late child support payment, amounting to 15% of Lambert's salary plus 24 years-worth of interest? Do we really believe Lambert himself had a nest egg that big? Payments of that size always leave a trail.

Interesting times they may have been back there; but many more are yet to come.
 
And if anyone was in any doubt about what getting the Met to look into the allegations around Lambert's involvement in the Debenhams operation would actually mean, here's some accounts of how Operation Sparkler/Nitrogen unfolded:

One of those visited [by Sparkler/Nitrogen detectives] told us:​
​
‘The first time was seven months ago a man and a woman came round, the second time was two men about three or four months ago.​
​
‘They were trying to get me to say if I knew anyone who was active in that era or did I know anyone, almost did I do anything myself in that respect. They wanted me to make a statement about it, but of course I didn’t. I was active in the 80s and I was convicted of things. I knew a lot of people who were around at the time through SLAM and through London Greenpeace.​
​
‘Then they gave my number and details to this other one, Operation Herne. Both times they came round my house uninvited, harassing me, trying to get me to make some statement, which I refused. The second ones said they were doing an investigation into undercover police officers, which I said was a joke, because how can police officers investigate themselves?​
​
‘I said if I got any more harassment from them I might take legal action against them, either individually or collectively. I said I wasn’t happy with people just turning up on my doorstep, I found it very disturbing.​
​
‘They’re the lowest of the low, these people. It makes me feel ill to think I was in touch with one of them.’​
​
Brandon Spivey was visited out of the blue, in a place that he doesn’t often visit, which he found unsettling in itself. Once faced with the officers, he let them know what he thought of them.​
​
That they had travelled 200 miles from London made it clear this was an irregular situation, more about intimidation.​
​
‘The coppers must have known I was going to be there, which was a bit of a shock. It wasn’t my regular address. I spend a lot of time out of the country. I flew in Sunday night, I saw my mum Monday morning and went for a drive with her, and that’s where the coppers had come to ‘doorstep me’. There was no prior warning at all.​
​
‘It was plain clothes officers, the two who’d been visiting everybody else, apparently. They were nervous. I fronted them out, asking them both their names and to see their identification, which I wrote down in front of them . I made them stand in my mum’s shop, so there’s about half a dozen people on my side looking at them. They said “do you want to speak of this outside?” I said if you want, so we stood outside in the street.​
​
‘They only presented me with the letter when we were stood outside. They made no attempt to explain anything, no “I’m sorry this might be a bit of a shock but…”. It was plain and simple, really quite hostile, them trying to be intimidating. The letter they gave me said it was Operation Sparkler.​
​
‘They said “we want to ask you about something that happened thirty years ago. Do you know anything about incendiary devices at Debenham’s?” I said yeah, I know all about it.​
​
‘They said “can you give us some names?” I said yes, I’ll give you some names; John Dines and Bob Lambert.​
​
‘I said, “I know why you’re here, you know why you’re here, now do me a favour and fuck off”. The two of them walked off in opposite directions, they were so flustered and made no attempt to even reply to my very clear attitude towards them and their bogus visit.’​
​
Others have had advance warning, even if they didn’t know why, as another person told us.​
​
‘They wrote to me in May at my current home address, a letter from Operation Sparkler/Nitrogen saying they believed I might have information about the ALF and people involved in the 1987 Debenham’s attacks, that could help them identify other perpetrators.​
​
‘I was completely mystified. I’ve had no contact with the ALF or animal rights movements at all. I was involved in anarchist circles from 1979 to 1986, and I knew Dave Morris and people through London Workers’ Group. But by 1987 I was politically inactive. Probably the last time I was arrested was at Wapping [strike Jan 1986-Feb 1987], I was cautioned – it wasn’t even a formal caution, they just told me to bugger off.​
​
‘I called them and said I have no idea why you think I might be able to help you, I don’t know anything about it. They said they would like to talk to me anyway and asked where I would like to meet. I said Bethnal Green police station. They said “I don’t want to talk to you in a police station, can’t we have a coffee somewhere?” I wasn’t having that.​
​
‘I googled the Debenham’s attacks, followed my nose to the Undercover Policing Inquiry and, having seen a list of core participants and who was representing them, phoned Mike Schwarz at Bindmans for advice. He said “that’s a coincidence because I was just about to ring you”.​
​
‘Weirdly, he couldn’t tell me why, because it was in connection with a document that he was not able to share – or even describe – because of a confidentiality commitment. However, the inference is that my name is on some kind of list.​
​
‘My hunch is that somewhere along the line some lazy underemployed police spy decided to invent a bunch of shit and plucked my name out of an old spycop file, to fill in a gap in their story.’​

As of October 2019 the Debenhams investigation (‘could be finished by July 2017’ my arse!) was not yet concluded, though the Senior Investigating Officer's report had been completed.

And, as if you had to ask, no you can't see it, or know any details about it.
 
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