Justice campaigners seek answers on police spy

Remembrance: John Burke-Monerville plants a tree on Hackney Downs for his son Joseph. Photograph: Nell Lewis

The Metropolitan Police has refused to confirm or deny whether undercover officer Mark Cassidy spied on the Burke-Monerville family and their campaign for justice following alleged police brutality against their son Trevor.

However, Lord Justice Pitchford, Chairman of the Undercover Policing Inquiry which was set up last year, said he will now look into the policing of justice campaigns – a move John Burke-Monerville hopes will give his family “some peace of mind”.

In 1987, John’s son Trevor was held at Stoke Newington police station during which, it was alleged, he was beaten and consequently suffered brain damage.

A ‘Justice for Trevor’ campaign was launched, supported by the Hackney Community Defence Association (HCDA), which was set up as a self-help group for the alleged victims of police crimes.

The HCDA’s aims were to investigate allegations against the police, provide mutual support for victims and campaign against police injustice – but there has been speculation that it may itself have been infiltrated by an undercover officer.

In 1994, seven years after his alleged mistreatment by police, Trevor Burke-Monerville was stabbed to death in Hackney, and no one has ever been charged with his killing.

In February 2013, another of John Burke-Monerville’ sons, Joseph, was shot in the head in Clapton in what is believed to have been a case of mistaken identity.

Operation Herne was set up in October 2011 to investigate alleged misconduct and criminality engaged in by members of the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS).

An undercover unit formed by Special Branch, the SDS operated between 1968 and 2008, during which time it infiltrated and reported on various campaign groups.

In August 2014 the Operation Herne team made contact with Mr Burke-Monerville saying they had information to share relating to his son Trevor.

However, no meeting took place between them.

Mr Burke-Monerville has since been shown a photograph of a person he recalls attending his justice campaign meetings.

That person was using the name Mark Cassidy but was in fact an undercover police officer.

The Metropolitan Police later stated Operation Herne had found “no evidence of covert operations targeted against any of the respective families or justice campaigns”.

A police spokesperson told the Hackney Citizen: “The MPS is not prepared to confirm nor deny if any individual works or has worked undercover.”

They added: “No documentation has been identified detailing any targeting or infiltration by the SDS into any family member of any justice campaign or those justice campaigns themselves.”