Latest news with #undercover
News.com.au
19 hours ago
- News.com.au
AFP raids multimillion-dollar Double Bay home
Wild footage shows a man being escorted away from a home in one of Sydney's most exclusive suburbs by undercover police officers dressed up as tradies. Police swarmed a home on Holt Street in Double Bay on Friday afternoon, with officers dressed in riot gear following two men dressed in orange hi-vis shirts as they led the man away from the luxurious home. An unmarked police car blocked off the street with its lights flashing, and armed officers were seen stationed around the area. A spokesman for the Australian Federal Police confirmed officers had executed a search warrant at the premises 'as part of an ongoing criminal investigation'. 'A man has been arrested,' the spokesman said.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
TD first to tell Justice Minister gardaí supplied guns to man who shot himself in shopping centre
Labour TD Alan Kelly has told the Dáil it was he who first informed the Minister for Justice it was undercover gardaí who supplied guns to Evan Fitzgerald , the young man who took his own life at a Carlow shopping centre. He questioned why the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris did not inform and brief Jim O'Callaghan 'of the details of this case and details of the fact that it was undercover and the guns were supplied by An Garda Síochána'. Tánaiste Simon Harris told him said this was a matter between the Garda Commissioner and the Minister and that he supported a call last week by the Taoiseach for a review into the case. Mr Kelly said that under section 31 of the 2005 An Garda Síochána Act the Commissioner is obliged to inform the Minister 'about any major issues'. READ MORE 'Is it appropriate, is it right that I as a member of the Opposition had to actually ring the Minister for Justice in relation to this and inform him', that undercover gardaí supplied the gun, he said. The Tipperary TD has previously raised the case of the 22-year-old in the Dáil. Mr Fitzgerald had fired shots in the air in a Carlow town shopping centre before taking his own life on June 1st and Mr Kelly phoned the Minister with the information two days later. The Kiltegan, Co Wicklow man was on bail and due in court days later to face 13 charges relating to possession of guns, ammunition and explosive materials. Mr Kelly, who said he rang the Minister on June 3rd to tell him about the involvement of undercover gardaí, asked: 'Is it correct that I had to tell him to go to the Garda Commissioner and ask him about the full details in relation to this case?' Mr Kelly raised the issue in the Dáil last week and asked about reports of the court case which suggested that the gardaí had told the judge in the case that they were 'investigating' how Mr Fitzgerald and others acquired the guns. 'The guns were actually given to him by An Garda Síochána ... How could they say in court that they didn't know where the guns came from?' Mr Kelly said. Independent Senator Michael McDowell had also raised the case in the Seanad last week. He said he was 'very deeply concerned that, by informing the court that the gardaí were still investigating by whom the weapons in question were sold, the court was actively misled'. Mr Harris expressed sympathy to Mr Fitzgerald's family. 'He's a county man of mine and I know it's been a great shock in the local community in Co Wicklow. 'I understand this is a complex case and I'm obviously not privy, nor should I be to when the Garda Commissioner does or doesn't use that provision in the Act. 'That's a matter between himself and the Minister, but I do understand that the Minister for Justice has sought further information from the Garda Commissioner on the case.' The Tánaiste noted comments last week by the Taoiseach and the need for a review 'and I would support the Taoiseach in relation to his comments on that'.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Undercover Kent Police officer keeps job despite crash conviction
An undercover officer with Kent Police has kept his job despite being convicted of seriously injuring two people in a car officer, known as Officer A, was convicted last year after crashing his unmarked police car into another vehicle while driving on the A28 at Tenterden on 30 November, 2023.A misconduct hearing on Thursday was told the officer had become distracted while on duty after the cable from his police radio microphone got caught beneath the pedals in his A, who suffered a broken nose and facial injuries in the collision, admitted gross misconduct and was given a final written warning to stay on his record for two years. Officer A's identity has been protected as he still holds an undercover role with Kent 30 October 2024, the officer pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by careless driving and was ordered to pay a fine of £1,115, a victim surcharge of £446 and court costs of £ the misconduct hearing in Maidstone, Mark Aldred, representing the officer, said he had always accepted responsibility for his actions. Victims 'support the officer' The hearing was told that despite his own injuries, Officer A tended to the injured driver and injured passenger in the car his vehicle crashed Aldred said some instances of misconduct should be resolved with a final written warning, adding: "If this isn't one of those cases, then it's hard to imagine one that is."The counsel for Kent Police also agreed that the "unique" situation warrants a sanction which falls short of dismissal, while highlighting the officer's "unblemished record".Before giving his verdict, the chairman of the hearing, Chief Constable Tim Smith, said he had "not seen much in the way of remorse" from Officer A, who replied: "I am very aware of the impact that I had on their lives."However, Mr Smith noted that the officer had shown a high degree of professionalism by caring for the people he had injured at the said: "They are unequivocal in their support for the officer and say he was just doing his job."Handing down his decision of a final written warning, Mr Smith accepted that the incident would affect the public perception of the police, as public safety was not went on to say the officer was "highly skilled" and "works day in, day out to protect the public from the most serious form of harm"."I see no use for dismissing Officer A," he concluded.
Telegraph
03-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
MI5 ‘deliberately and repeatedly lied' in agent's identity case, court told
An MI5 agent 'deliberately and repeatedly lied' after confirming to a journalist that a violent and misogynistic neo-Nazi was operating as an undercover source, a court has heard. The security service apologised to the High Court on Tuesday after acknowledging that a senior official gave false information under oath when he denied such a confirmation had occurred. A deputy director – identified only as Witness A – provided a sworn statement on behalf of MI5, insisting the agency had steadfastly maintained its policy to neither confirm nor deny (NCND) the identity of an informant. But that testimony was exposed as false earlier this year when a BBC journalist produced a recording of an MI5 agent – identified as Officer 2 – confirming that a violent neo-Nazi did work for them as a covert human intelligence source. Two investigations have since been launched to ascertain how MI5 came to provide false information to judges on three separate occasions. At a hearing before the High Court on Tuesday, Sir James Eadie KC, representing the Attorney General for MI5, reiterated an apology on behalf of the agency. 'Errors had not been deliberate' He said: 'I am not here to seek to excuse or diminish the seriousness of that position. Everyone from the director-general downwards acknowledges the seriousness caused.' But he insisted there had been 'no deliberate attempt to conceal or lie', suggesting that the 'failings and errors' had been down to poor recollection, a lack of accurate note-taking and communication issues. Sir James said the court could be 'properly satisfied' that a full investigation had taken place, and it concluded that the 'errors had not been deliberate'. He said the reviews found 'there had been no deliberate misleading or lying'. But Jude Bunting KC for the BBC said Officer 2 – the agent at the centre of the case – had 'deliberately and repeatedly lied', adding that there had been 'widespread knowledge within MI5' that he had done so. He said Officer 2 had been given authorisation from senior officials to 'deviate' from MI5's usual policy. Mr Bunting also said Sir Jonathan Jones KC, who was commissioned by the Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to carry out the external review, had not spoken to Officer 2 directly during the probe. He said the conclusion was that Officer 2 appears 'to have consistently lied', adding that it was 'very troubling'. The embarrassing episode dates back to December 2021 when a BBC journalist was investigating the activities of a far-Right extremist. After emailing the man to put the allegations to him, the reporter was surprised to be contacted by an MI5 official saying the claims were not accurate. During several subsequent telephone conversations, the MI5 officer confirmed to the journalist the man, identified only as agent X, did indeed work for them as a paid informant and even offered to arrange a meeting. He also told the reporter he had been 'legally authorised' to disclose agent X's role, suggesting the decision had been signed off at a higher level. Sir Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, attempted to get the BBC to drop the story but, when the corporation refused, Suella Braverman, the Attorney General at the time, went to the High Court seeking an injunction. During MI5's submissions Witness A insisted they had not deviated from their standard procedure of never confirming nor denying the identities of agents. The same position was maintained in evidence given to two other courts as the man's ex-girlfriend sought to expose how he had used his MI5 cover to abuse and silence her. The BBC was eventually permitted to run the story about the man's violent past and extremist mindset, but was banned from naming him. Lady Chief Justice Baroness Sue Carr, sitting with Mr Justice Chamberlain and Dame Victoria Sharp, the president of the King's Bench Division, are considering what action, if any, to take against MI5. Mr Bunting said it was the BBC's position that the threshold for bringing Contempt of Court proceedings against the agency had been reached.
The Independent
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
We had a 12-month romance. Then I found my boyfriend was really an undercover cop sent to spy on me
It had been a 12-month-long whirlwind romance that ended amicably, but little did Kate Wilson know a phone call six years on would change her life forever. Ms Wilson was in her mid-twenties when she met who she believed was Mark Stone at an activist meeting in Nottingham in 2003. The pair hit it off and began a romance which lasted over a year - but it was all a lie. Mark Stone was actually Mark Kennedy. An undercover police officer sent by the now-disbanded National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) to spy on an activist group Ms Wilson was associated with back in the early 2000s. Speaking at Wales' Hay Festival, which The Independent has partnered with once again, Ms Wilson described the impact of the immense invasion of privacy and her fight for justice. 'I met Mark at the end of 2003, after he shown up in the summer and befriended some of my friends who were living in Nottingham,' she said. 'We had an awful lot in common. He even liked country music which was pretty much unheard of in the circles I was in. He said he was from Battersea and from a broken home. 'He used to get emotional saying how his mother had brought up two sons on her own - but none of it was true.' When the relationship ended, the pair kept in touch, with Kennedy visiting Ms Wilson abroad in Barcelona and Berlin. They remained friends until years later, when she got a phone call from another woman Kennedy had been in a relationship with for six years, telling her that he had been an undercover police officer the entire time. 'We were really close friends right until I got the phone call. A friend of mind said 'Mark's a cop, we've got the proof and we're going public and I don't want you to find out from the internet,'' she said. Kennedy, who resigned from the Met in 2010, had sexual relationships with as many as 10 other women while undercover. Ms Wilson's revelation led to legal action against the Met and the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC), both of which have admitted to a number of breaches of Ms Wilson's human rights and apologised for the 'hurt and damage' the intelligence operation caused. In 2021, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ordered the Met Police and NPCC to pay a total of £229,471 to Ms Wilson 'by way of just satisfaction for the breaches of her human rights'. She is one of 60 victims of the spycops scandal. Taking place over more than 40 years, from 1968 to at least 2010, the operation is now the subject of a decade-long public inquiry that has already cost £88m and is due to conclude in 2026. 'There is a fundamental problem with secret policing,' Ms Wilson told an audience at the culture and arts festival. 'There's an institutional problem with the fact there's no accountability, but there's also a personal problem when you take these individuals - who are mostly men - and you take them out of all of the normal social controls that make people behave decently. 'They give them new names, they give them a mask, they tell them no one will ever find out who they were or what they did. 'You remove them from their families and give them a whole bunch of power over a group of people - and horrific things happen.' She sat down to discuss her ordeal with investigative journalist Oliver Bullough in a wide ranging talk at Hay Festival about her new book Disclosure: Unravelling the Spycops File. 'I'm doing alright now but there was some very dark moments,' she said. 'When it first happened I believed that not trusting was a good thing. I thought I had been really naive and trusting was a bad thing. I kind of wore my distrust like a badge of honour. 'I think one of the most important things to me about rebuilding trust is realising that that you can't have a community without trust and actually working to rebuild that stuff because its such an important part of what we do.' Addressing Ms Wilson's case previously, Helen Ball, the Met's Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism, said: 'It is important to note that since Mark Kennedy's deployment there has been enormous change in undercover policing, both in the Met and nationally, and I want to be clear that this case in no way reflects modern-day undercover policing.' Chief Constable Alan Pughsley, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for undercover policing, also commented on the 'significant changes' to the way undercover policing is conducted. 'The selection and training of all undercover officers have been standardised and is licensed by the independent body, the College of Policing,' he said. The Independent
