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The mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has told a public inquiry that she found it “deeply painful” to discover that police had deployed undercover officers to spy on her family and their campaign to get his killers prosecuted.
Doreen Lawrence said the police’s priorities were “completely misplaced” and they should have been concentrating on bringing the racist murderers of her son to justice.
Giving evidence to the spycops inquiry on Thursday, Lady Lawrence called the covert surveillance “disrespectful and dehumanising”. “Stephen was an innocent young man. Our family did nothing wrong,” she said.
She expressed her disbelief at allegations that the police had sought to uncover information to smear her family in order to destroy their campaign.
In a statement she described how the surveillance took place while she struggled to cope with Stephen’s murder, care for her other children and earn a living. “All the while I neglected my own wellbeing. I was simply surviving,” she said.
The inquiry is examining how undercover officers working for a Scotland Yard unit gathered information on her family and supporters in the 1990s while they campaigned to press the Metropolitan police to properly investigate the murder.
The inquiry was set up after Peter Francis, an undercover officer turned whistleblower, revealed in the Guardian the existence of the secret monitoring.
The failure to investigate Stephen Lawrence’s murder in April 1993 has long been a seminal case in Britain’s race relations, exposing the reality of institutional racism within the police.
The inquiry is examining the conduct of undercover officers who spied on thousands of mainly leftwing campaigners between 1968 and at least 2010.
Lawrence, who now sits in the House of Lords, said it was “deeply troubling” that the undercover unit, the special demonstration squad (SDS), had gathered information about her separation from her husband, Neville, at a time when it was not public knowledge.
She said: “To see the extent of the resources, time and effort that were directed towards monitoring our family and the campaign – rather than towards finding and prosecuting those responsible for Stephen’s murder – is deeply painful. It is hard not to feel that the priorities were completely misplaced.
“I can only imagine what might have been achieved if that level of determination, coordination and institutional focus had been used to investigate Stephen’s killers from the outset. Instead of pursuing justice, those in power chose to observe us.”
Francis, who infiltrated anti-racist campaigners between 1993 and 1997, has said his superior tasked him with finding information that could be used to discredit the Lawrence family and their campaign. This allegation is denied by the police.
At the time of the surveillance the Met had come under intense pressure over its failed investigation into Stephen Lawrence’s murder by a racist gang in south-east London.
The inquiry heard reports compiled by an undercover officer, David Hagan, who spent five years infiltrating anti-racism and leftwing groups. The inquiry has previously heard that he was told his reports were sent directly to Paul Condon, the then Met commissioner, who congratulated him on his “excellent” work.
Bob Lambert, one of the SDS managers, noted in September 1998 that Hagan had “unique insight into the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Lawrence campaign” that were “invaluable” to Scotland Yard. Hagan’s reports detailed meetings of the Lawrences’ supporters, including their plans for demonstrations.
Hagan has said that his reports on the Lawrence campaign were “incidental” to his main task, which was to infiltrate anti-racism activists.
Lawrence dismissed this argument, adding: “Regardless of how he frames it, the effect of his actions amounted to surveillance and intrusion into my family and our campaign seeking justice.
“I believe that his presence at our campaign meetings and events was purposeful. I believe he was there to report on us.”
