Fears for safety of undercover officers as police spy Mark Kennedy 'unmasks second officer posing as eco-activist'


Enlarge   Mark Kennedy

Undercover: Mark Kennedy posed as an eco-activist for seven years

A police officer working undercover as an eco-activist who allegedly went 'native' named another campaigner as an officer when he was rumbled, it was claimed today.

Racked with guilt at betraying his new friends after seven years of pretence, Mark Kennedy apparently confessed that a female officer in her 30s was also a spy.

She lived in Leeds and played a major part in organising a protest intended to close down the Drax coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire, the Guardian reported.

The group had already grown suspicious after she disappeared overnight in 2008 claiming she had fallen in love with a man in Coventry. She was never seen again.

Senior police chiefs are now said to be worried Kennedy, who went under the name Mark Stone in his alternate life, has also compromised the safety of other officers working covertly.

A major review across several police forces in the UK is underway to check their cover is still intact, according to the Guardian.

Telling friends who were protesters that the officer was working undercover is a serious breach of protocol which could mean other operatives have to be moved for their safety.

'This is serious stuff. Lots of people are at risk - their lives are at risk,' one police chief told the Guardian.

Police discussed the developments at a meeting of the Association of Chief Police Officers, to which the female officer and Kennedy were seconded, yesterday.

A major inquiry into Kennedy's actions and an overall review into how undercover operations are monitored is now expected.

Kennedy, now 41, used a fake passport to pose as Stone and travelled to more than 22 countries as a committed green activist during seven years undercover.

Still receiving a £50,000 salary from the Met, he was admitted to the group in August 2003 and soon gained the nickname 'Flash' because he always had money.

As he became involved in secret high-profile protest missions, he was relaying every detail of the activities to his superiors.

But his cover was blown wide open this week after a trial collapsed following allegations he had crossed the line and 'gone native', acting as an agent provocateur.

The case against six people charged with conspiring to shut down the coal-fired Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire in 2009 was dropped.

It came amid fears by the Crown Prosecution Service that the trial would expose sensitive details of the undercover operation.

Defence lawyers also claimed Kennedy was willing to give evidence in court for the protesters.

It has since emerged that the police officer had sexual relationships with several women after he infiltrated the activist community.

One woman came forward yesterday to say her liaison with the officer left her feeling violated after he was unmasked as a spy.

She told The Guardian Kennedy had relationships with several women and may have used sex as a tactic to gain intelligence.

She said: ‘In a general sense, there is a feeling that if somebody was being paid to have sex with me, that gives me a sense of having been violated.’

Environmental campaigners

Environmental campaigners (left to right) Oliver Knowles, Anthony Mullen, Simon Lewis, Brody Stevens, Daniel Chivers, and Spencer Pawling outside Nottingham Crown Court earlier this week

Kennedy became one of the most active members of the anarchist movements and went to almost every event across Europe.

He trained protesters for the Ratcliffe power station attack, helping to gather 114 other activists at a private school.

Unknown to his 'allies', he had already tipped off police who carried out a dawn raid on the school and arrested everyone.

Activists also said he had played a central role in protests at Heathrow Airport, Kingsworth power station and the hijacking of a coal train.

He even risked his life to climb a crane and hang a banner from Didcot Power Station, to show his devotion to the cause.

His reputation was such that in time he was on first-name terms with a global network of underground activists and was seen as an official driver.

He was maintaining a double life with a wife in London and an unwitting girlfriend in Nottingham who is said to be 'in tatters' after finding out his true identity.

Kennedy was unmasked after the raid on the Nottingham school when activists found his real passport and confronted him.

He admitted his role and then fled. He is said to be consumed with remorse over his 'betrayal' of fellow activists and considering making a personal apology.

Meanwhile, the officer is in hiding abroad and his UK-based handlers have reportedly travelled to the U.S. in a bid to track him down.

Mark Kennedy 'unmasked' second spy who spent years posing as eco-activist