Exposure of police spy in UK sheds light on covert operations
By Robert Stevens
19 January 2011

Last week, a trial of six environmental campaigners at Nottingham Crown Court in England collapsed. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said they could not continue, as “new evidence” had come to light undermining their case.

Police Constable Mark Kennedy had been an undercover police agent within the environmental movement since 2003 and had offered to give evidence on behalf of the six.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Kennedy confirmed that the evidence in question consisted of tape recordings he had made, which police withheld from defence lawyers. Under the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act of 1996, the police are duty-bound to make the CPS and the defence team aware of the evidence they have compiled. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently investigating whether Nottinghamshire Police made available all the evidence they had to the CPS.