The miscarriages of justice watchdog has sent an anti-facist campaigner’s 1977 conviction back to the courts after it was revealed that police had failed to disclose the presence of an undercover police officer at the demonstration.
Barbara White had been convicted of obstructing police and assaulting an officer in April 1978. In September 1977 as a member of the Communist Party, she took part in a march opposing a demonstration by the National Front in Barking, East London. During this, there was a confrontation which led to eight people being arrested.
The referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission comes as a result of evidence revealed in the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI). One of the eight arrested was an undercover police officer, who stood trial under the name ‘Desmond Barry Loader’ – referred to as HN13. The CCRC now believes there is a real possibility this conviction would be overturned by the Crown Court as an ‘abuse of process’.
According to the inquiry’s first interim report, by early 1977 HN13 managed to infiltrate the group. ‘It took him over a year to do so,’ the report stated. ‘His route in was via diligent attendance at study groups and party-building sessions conducted by the Communist Unity Association and the Progressive Cultural Association, Maoist talking shops.’ The East London branch of the Community Party had ‘by then, become involved in frequent clashes with the NF and the police’ in some cases involving HN13. He was arrested on two occasions for public order offences and prosecuted in his cover name.
According to the CCRC, at the time of trial the court was made aware there was an informant among the defendants but neither the prosecutors nor the court were made aware that one of the defendants was an undercover officer.
