Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Mark Kennedy encountered in London

Fitwatch friend | 18.02.2011 17:47 | Policing | Repression | Sheffield | World

Ex undercover policeman Mark Kennedy is now back in the UK.

The statement below has been verified by Fitwatch and the same statement will appear on their website shortly.

Last week ex-undercover police spy Mark Kennedy was encountered by chance by an activist who was an erstwhile friend. Kennedy was about to board a train at Euston Station in London. The person who saw him was extremely shaken and completely unsure as to what to do, but in the end they decided to accept Kennedy's offer to talk and ask him questions.

Immediately after this meeting the person went to another trusted friend and told them as much as they could remember of the conversation, and it was written down from memory. A wider group of activists was consulted in order to decide what to do. A decision was then made to let those who had been very close to Mark know asap that he was back in the UK; they wanted to make sure that nobody else was taken by surprise in this way. Another decision was made to write the following statement for Indymedia, to share the information freely with the movement.

It is important to state at the start that obviously we all have to assume that nothing Kennedy said can be trusted; although in this conversation he claimed he would “tell the truth from now on”, he refused to answer many questions, and some of what he said was known by his questioner to be untrue (these known lies are not repeated here). In addition, we are aware of the danger that by reporting Kennedy's words there is a danger of acting as unwilling proxies for Kennedy to push his own agenda. Bearing all that in mind, the conversation is summarised below.

Kennedy's appearance and current activities

Kennedy still has short hair, undyed, and has regrown his beard that he shaved off for Max Clifford. He was wearing a waterproof jacket, dark jeans, and trainers. He said he'd sold his motorbike and the narrowboat “Tamarisk”, although it seems likely from what he said, that he might be staying on the boat temporarily somewhere on the Grand Union canal just out of London, as Euston has lines serving this area.

He said that he was working on a documentary with an independent company, who he refused to name (but who are presumably operating in London). He said that he had been in the UK for three weeks and would remain here until the documentary was finished (approx 15 weeks in total, therefore for about another 12 weeks) and then planned to leave. He said that he was not going to be working on a film, but that there would be a book
as he wanted to 'get the truth out there', and claimed that no-one would be named in the documentary or in the book.

Kennedy and the media

He is being represented by Max Clifford but said that he hadn't been paid for his Mail on Sunday article yet, and that he hadn't even read it. Much of what he said in the conversation echoed much of the story in the Mail on Sunday on January 17th, and there was not much that was new.

Kennedy's undercover career

He said that the first time he ever appeared at an action was at Faslane.

He claimed never to have worked for Global Open (see  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/471916.html),
saying that he went to the animal rights gathering in Italy as a 'favour for a friend'. He said that he only contacted Global Open director Heather Millgate for advice on taking a legal case against the police for being beaten up at Drax.

He said that he personally knew of no other undercover officers that were in relationships with activists.
He said that his boss (presumably at NPOIU) was called Andy Nightingale, and that Nightingale had purposefully stirred trouble in the media (for instance, saying that there was a hidden video camera in “Tamarisk”).
He was asked about the newspaper article that involved undercover policeman Peter Black ( see  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/472708.html), but Kennedy called him Peter Blexley. It is unclear if that was an accident or not.
He said that he had told police they there was nothing being planned for the G20 and that was no need for a big presence. He said that the cops were already in riot gear when he got there, and then Ian Tomlinson died.

The questioner's response

Kennedy was told that he should move on asap, and that it's not okay for him to be going in and out of London as it could also be incredibly painful and distressing for others to bump into him. Was told that the documentary he was making would not help anyone at all. He was reminded that he had said at the beginning of the meeting that he would tell the truth and be asked anything, and that the conversation had proven both to be untrue.
He was told that whatever he said or did, he needed to know that there was no way back and no happy ending, that nobody could ever trust him again.

Fitwatch friend

Comments

Display the following 26 comments

  1. Thank you — spied on
  2. indeed — dept
  3. Ditto — Ann Archy
  4. Why — A N Other
  5. Giving them the satisfaction? — Jim
  6. Kennedy’s Global Open link — Anon
  7. Names — anon
  8. Who knows for sure if the bastard ever left London or the country.. — Anarchist
  9. Anarchist — Black n Red
  10. Thanks — ACAB
  11. shame it wasn't recorded! — techie
  12. Acab — Bob
  13. Bob — ACAB
  14. Back at ya ACAB — Bob
  15. Peter Bleksley — Grant
  16. For example — ACAB
  17. thx — anon
  18. To ACAB — Bob
  19. Tamarisk — ACAB
  20. ...ACAB — Anon
  21. yadda — unnecessary
  22. The whole thing stinks... — Rudeboy
  23. At Rudeboy and others... — A comrade
  24. Kennedy was told — Psychic Bob
  25. A 'free country'?! — Not full time yet
  26. cab — a
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech