Last week saw another pivotal figure of the Spycops scandal, Andy Coles, sworn in to give evidence at the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UPCI). James Simpson reports on some of his evidence. 

Andrew Wallace Jardin Coles, aka Andy Davey or Andy Van, infiltrated the anti-war movement briefly, before moving on to his main target – animal rights groups. Along with Bob Lambert, he is one of the men of the 1980s and 1990s that institutionalised practices within the Metropolitan Police Service’s (MPS) Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) that were abusive and impeded upon activists rights to organise politically. 

The Spycops scandal erupted 15 years ago when environmental activists in Nottingham uncovered Mark Kennedy. Kennedy, who had been deployed undercover for seven years as part of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), a successor to the SDS, unwittingly unveiled other officers who were undercover in that movement. From then the secrets of these units kept spilling out, largely due to the work of researchers and activists spied on (see the Undercover Research Group, Police Spies Out of Lives, and Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance websites as their work continues). 

By 2014 Teresa May, then Home Secretary, was forced to call for a public inquiry, as former SDS officer turned whistleblower, Peter Francis, revealed that the Stephen Lawrence Family Justice Campaign had been a target for the undercover police officers. Ten years, two chairs and 90 million pounds and rising later, The Undercover Policing Inquiry has reached a crucial phase – hearing evidence of the 1980s and 1990s – where any argument that the units leading figures’ abuses were aberrations are being dispelled. They very apparently became hallmarks and learnt traits of that era’s officer deployments, and eventually would be codified in the SDS Tradecraft Manual. Its original author and editor was one Andrew Coles. 

Coles went into the field in 1991. Originally the plan was to infiltrate South London Animal Rights groups like Brixton Hunt Saboteurs Group (BHSG) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). However successful organising amongst peace groups in response to the Gulf War meant that he began by infiltrating Active Resistance to the Roots of War (ARROW) and Swords into Ploughshares, attending marches and die ins by Parliament as well as non-violent direct action at RAF Fairford. By 1992 with the Gulf War subsiding Coles started to appear at London Boots Action Group (L-BAG), East Dulwich Poll Tax Group and Brixton squats and collectives like the 56a Bookshop, as he started to edge his way awkwardly towards activists and actions associated with BHSG and the ALF Supporters Group. 

Misogyny 

One of the features of Coles’ deployment and the SDS, was the overt misogynistic attitude of these serving MPS officers to women. Coming hot on the heels of Bob Lambert’s highly successful deployment following SDS officers like John Dines, Trevor Morris, and Coles himself, reporting took on a habitually sexist demeanour. Early exchanges on the first day of Coles’ hearing evidence saw counsel for the UPCI, David Barr KC, bring up multiple reports. These reports all commented on the physical appearance of different female activists, and mulled over the status of sexual relationships they were involved in. The police value of these reports was unsatisfactorily interrogated, leading Barr to comment that the reports had ‘more gossip than the News of the World.’ 

By no means was this the worst aspect of the misogyny rife in the SDS. Post Lambert, officers seemed to assume deception of women into sexual relationships as part of their strategies of infiltration. However, since his unmasking in 2017, and even after the MPS upheld a complaint and apologised for it on his behalf, Coles has denied any sexual contact or advances were made by him in his time undercover. The woman given the pseudonym ‘Jessica’ by the UPCI was 19 years old when the activist she knew as Andy Van, introduced himself as a 24-year-old animal rights activist. Coles was 32 at the time. Her childhood had been difficult following her adoption and sudden death of her brother had made her the target of bullying for much of her school days. 

Andy Van met her at London Boots Action Group meetings and started giving her and her housemate lifts home and hanging out with them at their East London address. He would start turning up later and more randomly at their shared house, until one night when they were alone, suddenly leant over and kissed Jessica. This pattern of behaviour is more or less identically described by at least five other women, who, being slightly older, avoided these lunges from a man described as ‘creepy’ and ‘a letch’. Jessica was a very young, and in her own words, naïve 19-year-old, just making it on her own in her first place away from her family. Andy Coles was lying about his identity whilst being paid by the MPS to spy. Despite Jessica’s similar misgivings to the other, slightly older, women he made unwanted advances on in a similarly predatory way, became her first sexual partner. 

Agents Provocateurs and misleading the courts 

If you enter a relationship whilst undercover make sure it is ‘with individuals not important to your sources of information’, says Coles in the SDS Tradecraft Manual. This is in a section under the heading ‘Sexual Liaisons’ confirmed by Coles in his hearing evidence to be his own authorship. Jessica a devoted lover of animals, and an above average attendee at hunt saboteur actions, was not however involved in the type of ALF non-violent, direct action Special Branch wanted information from their SDS field officers on. In fact, Jessica only did one such action in her life -the liberation of chickens from Great Hookley Farm in 1992, an action whose principal planner and instigator was alleged to be Andy Van. Much like Lambert five years earlier, seemingly the only way to know who an ALF activist was before they went to jail, was for SDS officers to plan and carry out actions themselves. 

Coles denies this planning role, although admits he was driving one of two vans involved in the action. As with much of the two days of evidence his stories never quite align under interrogation, and Barr quickly pokes holes in his recounting of these events. As with so much else he says under oath, his testimony starts to resemble a narrative version of Rab C. Nesbitt’s vest. ‘I was a founding member of Earth First! UK’, Coles would later proudly declare, but, once hearing his own words booming back to him, would row back from this statement quickly. The implications of an undercover agent creating their own activist groups echoing back at him, his face showing the panicked expression that became emblematic of his two days at the UPCI. 

Towards the end of his deployment in 1994, Coles attended a hunt saboteur event in Essex. This was a particularly large gathering of sabs from across London and the south of England, due to it being in the immediate aftermath of the newly introduced and controversial Criminal Justice Bill. Due to this special attention was taken as to what Coles should do, with the guidance of one of his managers, DCI Edmondson, in the event of his arrest. This included a false name that he was to give. Early on into the action, Coles was indeed arrested and proceeded to give the agreed upon name. It just so happened that the name was the same as an anarchist from the 56a bookshop collective squat -an individual Coles had in his own reports described as only having interest in anarchist theory and who had none whatsoever in animal rights activity. However, he worked in the bookshop with animal rights activists. A warrant for the arrest of the individual was issued and 56a Bookshop raided and searched in his pursuit. All an unhappy coincidence in the opinion of Coles. 

Family strife 

The only reason that the UPCI confirmed the real identity of Coles was through work of researchers and activists and the carelessness of his brother. Reverend Richard Coles, former keyboard player in The Communards, and sometime television personality, wrote in his autobiography about times he would meet up with his brother in the early 1990s, painting a picture of a dishevelled and scruffy version of his sibling during his time working as a undercover police officer. As this came to the attention of activists and pieces of the jigsaw came together, it was confirmed that Andrew Coles, in 2017 a Tory Councillor and regional Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, was Andy Van, hunt saboteur and habitual creep. 

This has been further exacerbated by Reverend Coles appearance on Channel 4 programme The Last Leg, airing on Friday 20 December, a day after Coles had finished giving evidence at the UPCI. In the show he admitted his brother was a spy who had infiltrated, ‘what was considered at the time’ dangerous groups. He flippantly made light of the situation, claiming he was learning seven years later with the rest of us, through the UPCI, what he got up to in his deployment. All the while the cast of people around him made light of the situation. No mention of Coles’ behaviour to Jessica, his lecherous behaviour noted by multiple women, or the distinct lack of any intelligence value to police work was made. 

This incident strikes two chords that must be considered when looking at the UPCI and Spycops saga. The issue of the protected identity of police officers in the SDS, means that realistically there could be many, many more out there. Many more Jessicas. Many more abuses of police power. The coincidental finding of Coles’ real identity highlights the fact that the authorities should be doing much more to right the wrongs of these insidious deployments and much less to protect officers from deserved reputational damage. 

The lack of knowledge from people on the show to this surprise revelation shows the lack of public knowledge and understanding of the UPCI. This is problematic. In the Metropolitan Police less than 10% of reported crime is solved and brought to trial, yet the best paid undercover officers were going around habitually abusing woman and disrupting channels of political expression and organisation. The Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) Act 2021 legalises the behaviour of undercover officers and makes them beyond reproach or in fear of legal repercussion. The notion of a police force as a law-and-order entity should be entirely dispelled by the combination of the CHIS Act and the UPCI to the deep unease of us all. 

Hints of future revelation at the UPCI 

The UPCI was set up in the wake of revelations by whistleblowing former SDS officer, Peter Francis, that the family of Stephen Lawrence had been spied on and the much-lauded Macpherson Report into the investigation of his death undermined. This has been touched upon by some testimony as SDS officers timelines overlap with the tragic events in Eltham in April 1993. Coles was questioned about the culture of the SDS at the time and what was discussed regarding the justice campaign. He denied ever hearing any racist comments or discussion regarding the Lawrence family. This despite an SDS manager of the time, DCSI Potter, colloquially known as ‘Potty Bob’ having to be driven home from one of the twice weekly SDS meetings of officers in the field, due to being excessively intoxicated. En route he to his home he got the driver to pull over, where he went into a church, used extreme racist language towards parishioners and also advanced upon one in an unwanted sexual manner. 

Coles said that the SDS only interest in the Stephen Lawrence Family Justice Campaign was not to smear, but to protect it from Socialist Worker Party activists’ infiltration turning it into a cause celebre. The Lawrence family, their lawyer, Michael Mansfield, and Stephen’s friend and witness to his murder, Duwayne Brooks, are core participants due to give evidence in Tranche 3 in spring 2025. Surely more will also be revealed on this series of events as managers from Tranche 2 whose time overlapped take to the stand in January 2025.

The public gallery is open to anybody that applies through the UPCI website