THE family of murdered young Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes and the bereaved mother of teenager Ricky Reel yesterday condemned undercover spying on their campaigns for justice.
A report into undercover policing was ordered after it emerged that police had sought to destroy the reputations of the family and friends of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.
This found that the police were seeking to dig up dirt to use, should the reality of the measures that the police were carrying out emerge.
The Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign reacted angrily on Wednesday night to the news that the Metropolitan Police spied on campaign activities relating to their search for justice after the fatal shooting of the innocent Brazilian in 2005.
A spokesperson for the Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign said: ‘It is shameful that the Metropolitan police spied on the legitimate campaign activities of a grieving family who were simply trying to get the answers they deserved after their loved one was killed by police officers.
‘It begs the question – what exactly were the police spying for? We can only assume they were gathering information in an attempt to discredit the family’s campaign for justice in order to deflect accountability for their own failings.
‘Hearing the news just one day after the anniversary of the shooting exacerbates the family’s distress at a time when they are remembering Jean Charles and what he meant to them – a loving, caring, 27-year-old, shot down in the prime of his life.’
Student Ricky Reel was 20 when he vanished during a night out in London in 1997, shortly after he and his friends had been racially abused by two white men. His body was found in the River Thames.
Ricky Reel’s mother, Sukhdev, said she had been informed that officers gathered intelligence on her in 1998 and 1999.
Already campaigning for a public inquiry into her son’s death, she called for a public inquiry into the spying claims. She said on Wednesday: ‘This was happening at a time when we were feeling very low. We should have been left alone to grieve for our son, instead of being spied upon.’
Sukhdev said she had been informed by a senior officer of five occasions when police were gathering intelligence on her. That officer was from Operation Herne, the inquiry into undercover policing led by Derbyshire Chief Constable Mick Creedon.
The undercover operation involved the unit known as the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) which also spied on Stephen Lawrence’s parents.
