This episode first aired on 9 December 2020.
In 2018, Frank Bennett’s sister Honor acquired a hand-delivered letter from a public inquiry about their 18-year-old brother Michael Hartley, who had been reported lacking at sea, believed lifeless, 50 years earlier than. For a second, they thought Michael had been discovered, however in truth, the letter revealed that their lifeless brother’s id had been stolen by a police officer who had penetrated two leftwing organisations. Utilizing this false id, the police spy had deceived a lady right into a sexual relationship and had been prosecuted throughout his deployment. Frank talks to Anushka Asthana about his childhood and the affect his brother’s dying had on him and his household. Understanding that, years on, his brother’s identify had been utilized by police has had a huge effect on his psychological well being, he says. Frank describes the police’s behaviour as “disgusting”.
Anushka additionally talks to Guardian investigative editor Paul Lewis and Guardian investigative reporter Rob Evans about their decade-long investigation with activists to uncover the actions of the Particular Demonstration Squad (SDS). Over 4 many years, not less than 139 law enforcement officials got pretend identities to intently monitor the internal workings of greater than 1,000 political teams. A few of these identities had been stolen from lifeless kids to lend credibility to their aliases – and a few officers, in a macabre ritual, even visited the graves of the kids whose identities they have been utilizing.
The work of activists and the Guardian has resulted in a judge-led public inquiry on a statutory stage with different important inquiries, resembling Lord Saville’s investigation into Bloody Sunday and the Chilcot examination of the Iraq invasion.
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