Simon Wellings (alias)

This article is part of the Undercover Research Portal at Powerbase - investigating corporate and police spying on activists

---

Part of a series on undercover police officers
HN118
Alias:	Simon Wellings
Deployment:	2001-2007
Unit:	Special Demonstration Squad
Targets:	Globalise Resistance, arms trade & anti-globalisation protestors, Socialist Workers Party, Dissent! network

Simon C. Wellings is the alias of an undercover police officer who infiltrated anti-globalisation group 'Globalise Resistance' and the Socialist Workers Party. He was exposed when he accidentally caused a debriefing session with his police handlers to be caught in a recording on a telephone answering machine in 2004, and left the group. However, he continued as an undercover until 2007, with a second deployment targeting the Dissent! network,.

On 19 January 2017, the Undercover Policing Inquiry confirmed that 'Simon Wellings' was an undercover police officer who had served with the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad. As such he is also referred to by the cipher HN118.

Much of the material on his first deployment comes from Guy Taylor, an activist who knew Simon through Globalise Resistance. It later emerged that during infiltration of Dissent!, Wellings had been interviewed several times by a fellow campaigner, Patrick McCurdy, as part of the latter's PhD research. This provided considerable insight into his activities, both in how his story in relation to Globalise Resistance changed, but also his activities around Dissent!. We are grateful to Dr. McCurdy for sharing some of his material, which we present for the most part on a separate page, as it provides an account in words of the undercover himself.

• See Simon Wellings: McCurdy Interviews

This page is a work in process and we welcome additions and corrections, particularly confirmation whether Wellings was present at various Globalise Resistance protests. Contact us here.

Background & Personality

Simon turned up out of nowhere in 2001 / 2002. His accent was southern English and he presented a story of having just been deported from Australia for overstaying his visa, but that he had a child there. Speaking to the press, Guy Taylor said, 'he didn't have much of a back story. We never met any of his friends of his family.' He was a practical dresser rather than going for stylish outfits. He was described by Guy Taylor as 'not the sort of bloke who would naturally stick in your mind'.

He was keen, generally available and flexible, ready to help out. The fact that he also had a car which he was willing to use, also endeared him to those he was targeting. Guy Taylor described him as a 'caring, empathic bloke. He was gentle and someone you could confide in - and people did. You could turn to him to moan or let off steam.' He soon became friendly with activists, and was very interested in gossip, including that related to the Socialist Workers Party. After Globalise Resistance steering committee meetings, it was usual for members to go for a drink afterwards and Simon would always be there. However, he did not get particularly drunk.

When he later moved to the Dissent! Network, he continued the same approach, being described as 'friendly and approachable, but not necessarily someone you would remember.

He was generally quiet when it came to political discussions within his circles, shying away from debates around Palestine or the anti-capitalist movements. He would become more lively when it came to marches or direct action; seemingly the more provocative or confrontational an idea was, the better.

Like other undercover officers, Simon had a good phone and up-to-date gadgets, such as his Discman. He rapidly became the unofficial photographer for the group, though as was noted, he had many photos of other members, but they had few of him. He was generally reluctant to be photographed. Later, at the G8 summit, during his infiltration of the Dissent! Network he had a laptop with wireless internet, which at the time was unusual and expensive.

Occupation

Simon said he worked installing security systems, particularly turnstiles and swipe card set-ups. As a result he would be away on contracts for set amounts of time. Later, in Dissent!, this occupation would switch 'to the installation of fibre optic cables ‘across the world’.

During his interview with McCurdy, he spoke of having a cubicle at work, where he would monitor Indymedia and Urban75, nominally as part of his interest in press coverage of the mobilisation against the 2005 G8 Summit.

Suspicions

'J' who also encountered Wellings at Globalise Resistance, met him a number of times recalled him as a chummy, friendly bloke who mainly came to meetings. He did not try to push the group into carrying out radical / illegal activities, but seemed in retrospect to be mainly about intelligence gathering. However, he did feel at the time there was something out of place about him. There was a bit of a joke that he was a plant of some kind and a little suspicion, mainly based on both his background story and politics being vague, but there was no evidence to back it up.

Relationships

Simon is not known to have been in any relationships while undercover, though he was constantly bemoaning the fact that he could not get a girlfriend. He did on occasion mention previous relationships.

Residencies

He lived at various addresses in London, including Peckham and Colliers Wood. The place in Peckham was a room in a shared house. Later, he appears in the Electoral Roll as Simon C. Wellings at Norfolk Road, Colliers Wood, SW19 2HE for the period 2003-2005. where he lived by himself. In 2004 he invited activists back to this flat after Aldermaston march (see below). It was recalled by Guy Taylor as being 'very sparse with activism related stuff everywhere, and nothing personal, such as photos; it looked like activism was the only thing in his life.'

Email

Wellings used the following three email accounts, the first being his primary contact for Globalise Resistance

• simon_wellings@hotmail.com
• simonwellings@gmail.com
• stealyourface@riseup.net

The latter email address appears to taken from the name of an album name by the 'The Grateful Dead'.

Target: Globalise Resistance (2001-2004)

<youtube size="medium" align="right" caption="Video footage of Simon Wellings with Globalise Resistance during protests for the G8 in Geneva (June 2003) and the visit of George W Bush to London (November 2003). Footage courtesy of Reel News">8n3qX6KbEbk</youtube>

Simon's first target was Globalise Resistance, a group involved in the then strong anti-globalisation movement. According to its website (Resist.org.uk) 'Globalise Resistance brings together groups and individuals opposed to the global growth of corporate power.' He also had some interest in the Socialist Workers Party.

September 2000 saw major demonstrations at the World Bank / International Monetary Fund Summit in Prague, with protestors coming from across Europe under the anti-globalisation banner. At this and other related events, links were built between socialists and other left wing / environmental groups with the idea of creating a single organisation to co-ordinate protests.

Inspired by the Prague protests, a series of eight conferences were held across the UK in February 2001 to start the mobilisation for the July 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa. It was out of these conferences that Globalise Resistance emerged as a UK network, as it became clear that they had tapped into a growing political momentum and were capable of being a sizeable organisation in its own right. Guy Taylor, one of its organisers, believes that it was at this point the state started showing interest in its activities - though by then he himself had already been subject to police surveillance for previous involvement in protests.

Taylor noted that strange activities began to happen around the group that indicated that they had been placed under surveillance by the state. Two initial attempts at having national conferences at Imperial and Goldsmith Universities in London fell through when the universities withdrew permission. However, with the support of leading green journalist George Monbiot in The Guardian (a speaker at various GR events; in 2001 he would also become a founding member of GR's steering group), the group was able to hold its first activist conference on 13 May 2001. By this stage it already had local groups established in Scotland, Birmingham, Southampton, London and Leeds. At the May 2001 conference, a steering group of 16-20 people was created.

Early on an office was established in a tiny room in a business centre in Mile End. During this time, they became aware they were being watched when they were leaked a screenshot of an internal Shell website 'NGO Watch' which held details of the office. This was notable, as at that point only a handful of people knew where the office was.

Replica orange tank built by Globalise Resistance activists, including Simon Wellings.

Early on, GR attracted controversy, with the anarchist wing of the anti-capitalist / alter-globalisation movement arguing that it was a front for the Socialist Worker Party which dominated its steering group. Asked about this, Guy Taylor responded that while individuals overlapped, they tended to be considered to be among the more maverick members of the SWP and that, as it grew and developed, it broadened out with others coming in to join the steering group.

From its start, Globalise Resistance maintained informal links with various prominent NGOs such as World Development Movement, War on Want, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Green Party and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, sharing numerous platforms with them, promoting their various events or attending protests organised by or in conjunction with them. This would subsequently extend to the Campaign Against Climate Change, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition. GR's website, and its newsletter, Resist, would consistently list and encourage its members to attend their events and note that there would be GR contingents on their large marches. GR would also be strongly focused on international summit protests, Mayday marches in London and played a leading role in organising and mobilising for the European Social Forum and World Social Forums.

As part of the 2001 Genoa G8 Summit mobilisation, GR organised a French train to take British and other protestors to the Italian city. Though French authorities sought to force its cancellation, it did go ahead. In Italy, GR linked up with other leading European anti-globalisation groups such as ATTAC for protests. Following the death of protestor Carlo Giuliani, who was shot by Italian police during protests in Genoa, a demonstration was also called by GR to take place at the Italian embassy in London.

Protest activities

It is thought that Simon turned up on the scene soon after the Genoa protests. He therefore missed GR's first activist conference in May 2001. However, by 2002 he was active enough in the group to be accompanying them to various international mobilisations.

One individual who associated with Globalise Resistance and to whom Wellings appeared to be close (see below), was Martin Hogbin. Hogbin would be exposed in 2003 as a corporate spy who was targeting the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, where he had been active since 1997 and appointed its 'National Campaigns and Events Co-ordinator' in 2000.

• For protests Globalise Resistance was involved in or supported, but where it is not known if Wellings was active or participated, see this appendix. If you are able to confirm his role in any of these please get in contact. Likewise if anyone can shed light on his participation in the Dissent! network.

2002: World Economic Forum, New York

Simon Wellings at World Economic Forum protest, New York City, 2002..

In February 2002, Simon was one of twelve GR campaigners to travel to Manhattan to take part in protests against the World Economic Forum there. They stayed in a flat in the Upper West Side with activists from Syracuse University.

2002: Seville EU Summit

From 21-23 June, the Spanish city of Seville hosted the European Union Summit, as part of the 2002 Spanish Presidency. The presence of the Summit was marked with large scale protests, including a General Strike on Thursday 20th. Further large protests took place on 21st and 22nd.

According to Guy Taylor, Wellings travelled to Spain with other activists from Globalise Resistance, staying with them on the camp-site provided for international protestors. However, he camped by himself, away from other GR activists.

Simon also delivered quotes for Issue 6 of Globalise Resistance's magazine 'Resist':

Simon Wellings from Globalise Resistance said: "The situation in Seville was incredible. People jammed every street and filled several parks. Despite the heavy police presence there was a carnival atmosphere, stilt walkers mingled with the crowds. The majority of the demonstration was Spanish, mainly striking trades unionists, but people from other countries were a very significant minority."

...but Wellings insisted most protesters did not object to the EU per se. "We're objecting to specific policies," he said. "We're protesting against the neo-liberal agenda, the swing to the right and the erosion of asylum rights. You can support all of these causes without being anti-Europe."

Wellings added: "Each one of these huge demonstrations helps to swell our ranks."

Guy Taylor recalled, that while they group was passing through Madrid someone attempted to pick their pockets by first causing a distraction; it was noticed that Simon immediately responded by grabbing his pockets, which stood out as an unusual on-the-ball action.

It is thought Wellings may well have been at the earlier Barcelona protests on 14-16 March 2002, called in response to Spain taking up the Presidency of the European Union.

2002: Ariel Sharon protest, London

On 12 June 2002 the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign held a protest against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon who was passing through the UK while returning from a visit to George Bush. A last-minute demonstration was called at Downing Street, which saw several hundred people take part. Simon Wellings wrote a report of the protest for Issue 6 of Resist in which he said:

It seems that the number of demonstrators took the police by surprise. As ever the entirely peaceful crowd was forced into an area behind a number of metal barricades; but the police had to call for extra barricades to be brought up twice. This was cheered by the noisy and energetic crowd.

2002: Palestine demonstration at Selfridges

Wellings attended a protest at Selfridge's flagship store on Oxford Street in London on 3rd August. The protest was called by Direct Action Against War Now, and supported by GR along with other groups such as Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Rhythms of Resistance. Jews Against Zionism, the WOMBLES, CND and various anarchist groups.

Around 200 people took part, with various small affinity groups causing disruption in the store itself. Wellings was part of one of the groups that sought entry and he was among those ejected by security.

There was a large police presence at the demonstration and two people were arrested. It was also reported that two of Selfridges' security guards had been present, undercover, at an open planning meeting a few days before (1 August at the London Action Resource Centre), where they had posed as potential participants. DAAWN itself, was a group formed in March 2002, and which actively campaigned against Selfridges due to the department store's selling of goods from illegally occupied Palestinian territories. It worked closely with the Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Rhythms of Resistance in carrying out previous actions at the Oxford Street store.

2003: 15 February Stop the War global protest

Globalise Resistance's 'People not profit, peace not war' orange banner, taken at a 2007 anti-war protest. See Z Pavlov, People not profit, peace not war, UK Indymedia, 26 February 2007 (accessed 18 January 2017).

15th February 2003: Simon Wellings was on the large anti-war march as part of a Globalise Resistance contingent. GR's profile on the day was prominent as they had a 10 meter orange banner reading 'People not profit, peace not war'. Wellings was one of the many carrying it.

Wellings had previously put his name to a call out to the European left to mobilise against the forthcoming Iraq war. This call-out was presented at a preparatory meeting for the European Social Forum, that had taken place in Brussels on 7th-8th September 2002. It is not clear if Wellings was at this particular meeting, though GR helped coordinate the call-out, being a point of contact for it.

2003: DSEi

The Globalise Resistance orange tank being used at the 2003 DSEi protests

7 - 12 September 2003 saw a wide range of protests against the DSEi arms fair in London Docklands area, mainly led by the Disarm DSEi group (to which GR formally affiliated) which encouraged autonomous actions, and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. A convergence centre was opened and saw numerous workshops around the arms trade issue, as well as advice for activists. A number of actions were planned, not just at the ExCeL exhibition centre, but at arms industry related offices around London, and included train blockades. The convergence centre itself, in nearby Bromley-in-Bow, was placed under heavy overt surveillance by police Forward Intelligence Teams.

The protests were met by a large police operation, led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Trotter, which cost £1 million and saw a total of 144 arrests. Civil rights group Liberty responded with a court case against Home Secretary David Blunkett and Police Commissioner John Stevens, challenging the use of draconian powers banning protests granted under the Terrorism Act and the use of stop and search powers under the same act.

The Globalise Resistance and Campaign Against the Arms Trade protests assembling in Cundy Road Recreational Ground during the 2003 DSEi protests

Globalise Resistance focused primarily on a public protest for the opening of the arms fair on 9th September, for which they built a 15ft replica tank made of cardboard, painted orange. Around 500 people from GR and CAAT marched from the Cundy Road Recreational Ground to Victoria Dock on that day. The Daily Telegraph characterised the GR protest, again including their orange tank, as peaceful.

It is known that Simon Wellings was involved in preparations in the run up to the events of the week, including the building of the tank and that he took part in reconnaissance for other actions. It is also of note that Martin Hogbin was a spokesperson for CAAT in relation to the week of protests, appearing in the Guardian when he called the police response an over-reaction.

Later, he would tell Patrick McCurdy that he had been involved in a couple of actions at DSEi, including at the DLR trains, but 'kind of in the end we got bungled off the trains by the cops ... not arrested but detained for a while and then escorted off the train service'.

Press reports from the time note that an action was held on 11 September at the Docklands Light Railway, in which two men were arrested for climbing on a train at East India Quay station and locking themselves on to the roof. Curiously, press carried a story on 10 September that the DLR was a 'possible target' for the protests, though police refused to discuss tactics, but did confirm they were sending more officers to police the arms fair.

2003: Evian G8

The annual G8 Summit took place at Evian in France from 1st-3rd June. As with previous years, it was met with large scale international protests and a massive police presence. A sizable contingent from Globalise Resistance attended, with activists, including Simon Wellings, making their own way there. Wellings is known to have camped with others from GR at the Geneva camp, which was based at a local sports stadium. On the first night the sprinkler system went off, damaging tents and causing people to switch places. As a result Wellings and Martin Hogbin camped close together. Video footage shows him participating in a march and chanting through Geneva with others from Globalise Resistance. He also is known to have taken to a megaphone during this protest.

2003: George Bush protests

Wellings as he appeared at the George Bush protests, November 2003

From 19-21 November, George Bush was on a state visit to the UK, which prompted calls for protest by the Campaign Opposing Climate Change and Stop the War Coalition (StWC). Globalise Resistance was involved in promoting and providing materials for various protests. News reports from the time noted that the protests, along with the general terrorist threat level, were causing the police concern so that heightened security measures were put in place. Thousands of extra police were drafted in for an operation headed by DAC Andy Trotter and which cost £5million.

Globalise Resistance activists were present at a demonstration at Buckingham Palace on 19 November, where George Bush was being formally welcomed, and at the main StWC demonstration on 20 November, which involved a march from Malet Street to Trafalgar Square.

After the main StWC protest, a tip-off was received that Bush's cavalcade would be heading from Buckingham Palace to the US Ambassador's residence in Hyde Park. Protestors who had gone to local pubs in the west end as the main demonstration of the day was over, swarmed out and gathered at Hyde Park Corner, Wellings among them. Police subsequently kettled them. Wellings avoided being caught in this, but was seen urging those trapped to fight their way out through police lines.

In his interview with McCurdy, Wellings stated:

But when Bush came here in November, I was involved with the organising of the-the Resist Bush Tea party. I was actually involved with the plot-planning of that action. It was a very you know, it was a very fluffy you know sort of action and it was just completely demonised [in the media].

For one of the public meetings ahead of the protests, Wellings told an ancedote of a mainstream media journalist turning up at it, pretending to be a trade union employed, and later . This would appear to have been Laura Peek, of The Times who wrote an article, How I infiltrated hard core of the protest movement on 19 November 2003 in which she describes having been to a meeting at the anarchist London Action Resource Centre discussing plans to protest the President's visit. Welling was critical of her article for sensationalising the threat demonstrators posed.

2004: Aldermaston

In the following April, 400 protestors set off on a four day march from London to Aldermaston, the headquarters of the UK's nuclear weapon research, in commemoration of two historic peace marches. The march was organised jointly by CND, the Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp and Slough4Peace. Simon Wellings used his car to drive three other Globalise Resistance activists to join the final section of the march.

Thames Valley Police were quoted as having 'praised the conduct of the demonstrators and said there had been no arrests', though earlier they had complained that protestors had been irresponsible for not applying for expensive road closures.

It is of note that the Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp had been infiltrated by undercover officer Lynn Watson until just before March 2004, when she moved to Leeds.

2005: G8 Summit organisation

July 2005 saw the G8 Summit return to Britain, taking place in early July at Gleneagles, Scotland. It saw a series of large protests by three separate counter-mobilisations: Make Poverty History, G8 Alternatives and Dissent! Make Poverty History was mainly NGO / civil society led, while the Dissent! network was at the other end of the spectrum, drawing from Earth First! and anarchist groups (see below).

G8 Alternatives was the main banner for groups situated in the traditional left, and was the one Globalise Resistance associated itself with. The Scottish Socialist Party played a significant leading role in it, though the list of supporters include a wide range of left wing and trade union organisations, anti-war groups and other campaigns, many of which were based in Scotland.

Mobilisation under the G8 Alternatives banner began in summer 2004, with the participation of Globalise Resistance. In particular, Simon Wellings travelled to Scotland to organising meetings there where he acted as GR's representative, using the pretext of visiting his ex-girlfriend living there. Though he would only have a chance to attend a few early meetings before being exposed.

During the Summit itself, Globalise Resistance would take part in various protests. Events included the march through Auchterarder, a protest at Dungavel detention centre, and the G8 Alternatives Conference in Edinburgh. As he had been exposed prior to it, Wellings did not travel there with GR, though he is likely to have been involved behind the scenes with the policing of the protests.

Globalise Resistance Steering Committee

Archives of the Globalise Resistance website list the members of the group's Steering Committee from May 2001 onwards. Simon Wellings makes his first appearance on the committee in May 2003, having been elected at that year's annual conference (however, Guy Taylor recalls him as being close to the Steering Committee from 2002). He was re-elected at the April 2004 conference, though he is removed by October 2004. His affiliation is given as that of the Socialist Workers Party.

The steering committee is of wider concern because, although Socialist Worker Party members made up the largest constituent, it consisted of a wide variety of individuals who connected into other campaigns and groups. Wellings would have been in a position to learn more about them, particularly in post steering committee meeting drinks.

Groups represented by individuals on the committee include: Workers Power, Green Party, ATTAC (LSE branch), International Solidarity Movement, Communications Workers Union, Progressive Muslim Network, Workers Power, Iranian activists, Unison (Lambeth Branch), Stop the War Coalition, Respect Party.

Exposure within Globalise Resistance

Image of Simon Wellings as he appeared on Newsnight.

Unless otherwise cited, all material in this section comes from the account of Guy Taylor.

The voice-mail recording

In late January 2004, Guy Taylor received a call from a fellow activist, M, who told him there was a strange message on her answer-phone, which had been left at 1.48pm on Friday, 16th January 2004. As she has only just heard it, it was about to be timed out and deleted. Taylor in turn contacted another friend who made a recording of it.

It seemed that whoever it was had accidentally caused their phone to ring M, who by chance was out so the call ended up being recorded. From the background noise, it is apparent it captured a debriefing in a police station. On it, a man is being asked to identify people on demonstrations from photographs supplied by CO11, the Metropolitan Police's public order unit. At one point he identifies a woman as a girlfriend of a campaigner, and discusses her sexuality and hair colour.

It became immediately apparent to Taylor and others there was a police spy in their circles, but initially they struggled to identify the voice on the recording. Taylor played the recording to quite a few different people, including Simon Wellings, but nobody recognised the voice.

The confrontation

In August 2004, Guy Taylor was working in the GR office and listening to music when Simon Wellings rang to ask about an upcoming meeting for a protest working group. Guy muted the music and spoke to Wellings. After the phone call, he put the music back on, but it had progressed to playing the recording of the voice-mail message, which Guy had put on the same device. It was at that point the realisation dawned - the person on the recording was Wellings. He re-played the message others in the group, and they agreed this time: it was Simon's voice in the recording.

The meeting that Wellings had rang about went ahead. It was a Friday evening in August, at 7pm on the 5th Floor of the Royal Festival Hall. Wellings turned up to find six people from Globalise Resistance waiting for him. He was the last to arrive and was greeted with the statement: 'Simon, you've been rumbled, fuck off.'

According to Taylor, Wellings started sweating and became panicky. He told them it was a mistake. They said he could hear the recording, but as his Discman was out of batteries, he asked if he could go and buy new ones. To their surprise he came back; he then cried and 'laid it on some more'. However, he was told the phrases used by the speaker in the recording were all ones he used and that he could no longer be trusted.

Afterwards people were shaken and emotional. Others refused to believe that he had been spying on them. As there were fears they had been mistaken, the group did not pursue it other than to tell people in other campaigns that might have been affected, such as Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Campaign Against Climate Change. They would continue to keep an eye out for him in case he turned up elsewhere, but at the time were wary of inflaming paranoia or be accused of being irresponsible.

On Sunday 22nd August 2004, not long after, Wellings sent an email to various people saying they had got it all wrong, and mentioned the importance of Globalise Resistance organisation around the upcoming European Social Forum and the following year's G8 Summit. A copy of the email is below, edited to protect people's identities. Other than the email, Wellings vanished after the confrontation, though one member of the GR steering committee did subsequently bump into him.

Email on being exposed

(Some details redacted)

Date: Sunday, August 22, 2004 9:57 pm
From: Simon Wellings <simon_wellings@hotmail.com>

I haven't really slept since Friday night trying to figure this out and I am completely freaked by this so I'm just going to write it as it comes up to the surface - all that I ask is that you read this message - I think that you all owe me that. Firstly, like I said to you at the meeting Guy, this is the recording that you discovered late last year, or early this year (whenever...) I remember that you 'phoned me about it at the time, more than once I think. We also spoke about it when I was in the office one day, helping out. I just never got to hear it - I think because it was in an mp3 format that wouldn't play or something - I remember you telling me a few bits about it - the point I'm trying to make is that if I had spoken to the police, if that was me on the recording, you would have been warning me that I had been discovered. Do you not think that I would have taken the opportunity to get away? Also, you must have listened to it then, again and again and presumably didn' think it was me. Why are you so willing to believe it's me now? (Like I said on Friday I concede that one of the voices on the recording does sound, in places, like me, or someone trying to sound like me, or something that has been fabricated to sound like me...) Guy, I can remember you telling me, that [M.] had told you, that she was seeing someone at the time that she got the message, who had told her that he was M.I.5. Surely there is a connection here! That recording just happening to turn up on her 'phone at the same time! Have you actually spoken face to face with [M.] and got to the bottom of this? The other thing is that you know that I know [X], that I know her boyfriend - (just about the only clear bit I could make out in the two times that I listened to that recording was her name and her being described as an 'out and out lesbian') Why on earth, if it was me , or it was genuine, and for some reason I was chatting away to the pigs, would I describe her like that? I want you all to know that I have wracked and wracked my brains over this and I firmly believe that this is the state fucking with our heads. Think about it please, we've got ESF about to happen, rolling in to G8, think of the impact and damage we can make over the next year. The state is upping the ante - the oldest trick in the book, divide and conquer. This recording is someone impersonating me - or a complete fabrication. Are you seriously telling me that you don't think the state is technically capable of such a deception or vicious enough to carry it out? (The only thing I can't work out is why get it into the open that way - on her phone - all I can think is that if they just dropped it, all crisp and shiny, on a disc in the post to the office - that you would have been a bit less quick to believe it.) You said to me on Friday Guy that the trust was gone and that whatever I said it could never be brought back. Well I say this to you, to all of you, that that trust should have worked both ways. I have trusted you, trusted you all and if you think that I could have been wandering around for months looking you straight in the eye - after I had sold people out - then you must be off your heads. I cannot believe that you are all so willing to believe it. I am your friend and I absolutely swear to you that I have never ever talked to the pigs. I mean, why would I? Why? It doesn't make sense - it's just totally freaking me out. This has absolutely broken my heart - Its not me and I am going to do everything that I can to prove it. Simon.

Continued targeting of Globalise Resistance?

In 2012, Guy Taylor obtained his police file following a Data Protection Act request. This included material from the National Domestic Extremism Database, and he discovered the police had recorded him at 27 separate protests, which included anti-racism, anti-war and climate change. They even noted he had done a stall with Globalise Resistance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2009, saying 'this stall was selling political publications and merchandise of a XLW [extreme left-wing] anti-capitalist nature' - it was selling t-shirts, badges, books and DVDs; the file also recorded the name and telephone number of the person who had booked the stall. This has led to speculation that a second officer had been sent into infiltrate GR after Wellings had been exposed. Though Guy Taylor noted that it would have been strange to log the person who booked the stall rather than the people who actually did the stall at the festival. This would seemingly indicate that the information is more likely to have come from an intercepted email or someone directly involved in Glastonbury Festival.

Target: Dissent! Network (2004-2007)

Simon Wellings in 'black bloc' dress for G8.

The Dissent! Network was a mobilisation among the anti-authoritarian / anarchist wing of the anti-globalisation movement in the mid-2000s. It emerged in 2003 from anarchist groups based around Earth First! and the WOMBLES, with the aim of creating a mobilisation against the 2005 G8 Summit of world leaders, to take place at Gleneagles, Scotland. It was the subject of a huge policing operation of which part was the considerable targeting of protest groups by undercover police, including Jason Bishop, Lynn Watson, Marco Jacobs and Mark Kennedy.

Throughout 2004 and 2005 it held a series of national meetings held in various cities around the UK. A key organising event was the Festival of Dissent, held in Lanarkshire in April 2005. During the Summit, with tens of thousands of protests arriving, it organised a series of convergence points in Glasgow and Edinburgh and a large campsite in Stirling (the 'Eco-Village' / 'Hori-zone'). Large scale protests were also organised, including the 'Carnival For Full Enjoyment' in Edinburgh and 'black bloc' marches during the summit itself.

Though the peak of its activity focused on the 2005 event, it continued to be active over the following few years as UK based campaigners attended mobilisations taking place in other countries where the Summit was being hosted.

The 2005 mobilisation was also a key focus of Globalise Resistance, which had aligned itself with the G8 Alternatives network, and Wellings had been active in that group's preparations prior to his being found out there in August 2004 (see above).

Wellings did not take on a prominent role within Dissent, staying in the background, and is not well recalled by those involved. He was at 'The Festival of Dissent', and attending several workshops; he also stayed on the Stirling Eco-Village (or 'Hori-zone') during the G8 itself. One focus was the Dissent! media team (known as the 'Counter Spin Collective'), which appeared to use as cover. Wellings said he joined one of the 'black bloc' groups and almost without certainly knew plans for direct actions that were not stopped.

Dissent! banner at the Derby M17 protest

Wellings places himself at the G8 Environment and Development Ministerial Meeting (see below). He also alluded to attending of the TRAPESE Roadshow, held in London on 23 April 2005. T.R.A.P.E.S.E was a educational collective which had formed to raise awareness of issues around the G8 and toured giving workshops focused on a popular audience. Mark Kennedy was the driver on the Ireland part of this tour.

Curiously, in his interview with McCurdy, he defends press coverage of Dissent!, saying that the organisation was not dangerous and press were overhyping the actual situation.

In a follow up interview with McCurdy, Wellings states he had gone to Scotland 10 days before the Summit opened to take part in preparations for the mobilisation. He notes that he was a part of the Counter Spin media collective.

He gives an account of having been on the Make Poverty History march, where he implies he was with anti-authoritarians:

And the cops were immediately chasing us down the road, lining up and shields out. It was all pretty silly. And as soon as that happened, it was amazing – the power of the image. There were a couple of tiny scuffles with the cops and I remember seeing an image that was used in loads of papers - that guy with a little stick with a placard - about 1 inch by half an inch of balsa wood. And he was trying to sort of stop the cop hitting him with his bat. Perhaps he was trying to hit the cop, I don't know. But it was just - that was it- bang! Anarchists run amok - we told you it was going to happen. That was the sort of news agenda after that, really.

Wellings also indicated he had been on the camp at Stirling, including discussing the gazebo that had been set up outside the camp to conduct media work (mainstream media not being permitted on site) and his involvement in some of the decision making meetings that took place there.

At the start of the Summit proper, activists left the Stirling Eco- Village (or 'Horizone') during the night to make their way towards Glenaegles Resort where the G8 was being held. Several blockades of the road were successfully mounted, delaying delegates for several hours. Wellings states that he was among the people leaving the camp and going across country to avoid police:

I was out [...] - it was fucking a struggle to get out there – to get to the motorway. There were dozens of other groups who had gone out, slept in the woods, slept in ditches and they did take the motorway and they did blockade it. And it was blockaded time and time and time again. You know, for long periods of time. And we were in a good position to see that, from where we were, tramplin' cross-country and wading through streams and muddy fields and getting chased by the cops trying to get there. You know, pursued by helicopters and all that malarkey, and crossing railway lines. And we eventually, you know, pretty much hooked up and it was, you know, I think it was a successful day. I think we showed despite all the limitations and the efforts they go to, to stop us – we can be successful. And there's no doubt people were, you know, radically delayed getting to the conference. Delegates, and perhaps ironically considering what we are discussing, specifically, a lot of the media. It took them 5 hours to make what should have been a 20-minute journey.

However, there is nothing to corroborate Wellings' account. McCurdy states that other than him, Wellings did not seem have any close friends at any of the meeting leading up to the G8, or the mobilisation itself. Wellings' spent the evenings in his tent with the laptop on.

European Social Forum (2004)

Welling was encountered at the European Social Forum / Beyond ESF events, held in October 2004. The European Social Forum (ESF) was a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement. In October 2004, it was held at Alexandra Palace in London. For those on the libertarian left, the London ESF became controversial due to the involvement of Ken Livingstone, then Mayor of London This lead to the non-hierarchical, particularly those in the milieu around the WOMBLES, setting up the Beyond ESF conference which happened concurrently at the Tottenham Campus of Middlesex University. Among the themes discussed was the G8 mobilisation and the Dissent! network. Mark Kennedy was active around Beyond ESF and also present at the ESF itself.

Given that his former colleagues in Globalise Resistance were also active in putting on the ESF, and it was not even four months after his exposure within that group, it is remarkable he attended.

Derby G8 Enviornmental Ministers protest (2005)

Flyer for G8 Environmental Ministers meeting protest, Derby, 17 March 2005

As part of holding the G8 Summit, the UK held a number of related ministerial level meeting through-out 2005. One of these was the G8 Environment and Development Ministerial Meeting, which took place on 17-18 March at Bearsall Priory, just outside Derby.

The climate action working group within Dissent! called for protests to take place at it, albeit at quite short notice: Though the details of the meeting were publicised by Dissent from early 2005 and protests gainst other G8 related meetings were taking place the call-out for a protest was only made three weeks beforehand, on 27 February. The demonstration received considerable hype in the media, with tales of anarchists planning to descend on the city to cause mayhem.

Reverse of flyer for G8 Environmental Ministers meeting protest, Derby, 17 March 2005

Derbyshire Police posted notices on Indymedia, appealing for organisers of protest to get in touch, and Home Secretary Charles Clarke imposed bans on marches in the city on 15 March.

In the end, the protest was not widely taken up with only 150 people turning up and as contemporary reports noted being vastly out numbered by police - Derbyshire Constabulary saying it was its biggest operation since the Miners Strike in 1984/5. Police spent £1 million on the operation, with over 1000 officers from 23 different police forces, having expected up to 5,000 demonstrators. In charge of policing was Assistant Chief Constable Mick Creedon, who said:

If there are unlawful protests we are ready for them, but there is nothing at the moment that suggests there is going to be disorder in the city.

It saw a number of arrests taking place, mainly on the critical mass bicycle protest. The protest was not considered a success, and it was thought by protestors that the over-the-topic police operation was being treated as a trial run for the G8 Summit itself.

Welling notes to McCurdy that he was present for the day of protest, and in this context mentions the extremely heavy policing.

Counter-Spin Collective (2005)

The Counter Spin Collective was an autonomous off-shoot of the Dissent! network which did media work around the G8 protests. Given the decentralised nature of the network, it did not speak on behalf of it, but it did liaise with the media and assist those who did wanted to, while acknowledging that there were many that didn't wish to have such engagement.

The group initially emerged in February 2005 at the Glasgow meeting of the network to look at ways the protestors could engage with the media while remaining true to their principles. In March 2005, at at Leeds it set up temporarily to deal with media interest around April's Festival of Dissent in April 2005. It became more organised at the May gathering in Nottingham when cogent media strategy was formed, and it acquired it name. Among its activity was working with interested journalists and in some cases filing complaints regarding malicious and false news stories. As such it tended to act as a coordinating group rather than with any particular authority.

By the time of the week before the Summit, the originally small core group had expanded to around 20 people. Often people involved had multiple roles within the network as a whole. One role the group found itself in was passing on tips from journalists.

As well as Edinburgh, where it had its own space (visited by Mark Kennedy) it was also particularly active at the Hori-Zone in Stirling. There it set up a media welcome space just outside the camp gates, and produced press-packs for the media descending on the site.

Simon Wellings was active around the group and present with it in Scotland in the run up to the summit protests both at its spaces in Edinburgh and Stirling. It appears he attended a number of national meetings for it, though it is unclear precisely which ones.

Patrick McCurdy described Wellings' role in the Counter-Spin Collective as not significant, amounting to a few emails on the internal list and generally showing interest. He made it clear he had other interests as well which included going off to check out protests and actions - having knowledge of things planned.

Exposure by Newsnight

In 2011, with the Mark Kennedy story breaking and initiating a wave of media interest, Globalise Resistance spoke to a lawyer and were told the best thing to do would be to get the story out into the public. They approached Newsnight through personal contacts; as a result, the BBC posted a page on the Newsnight website with an image of Wellings saying that they would like to speak to him as a former member of Globalise Resistance, though not saying any more. The Metropolitan Police promptly phoned Newsnight to say they should take it down (a clear breach of their Neither Confirm Nor Deny policy). This was good enough for the BBC and they exposed Wellings as an undercover officer several days later on 25 March 2011.

In the immediate aftermath, the Metropolitan Police merely stated:

The use of undercover officers is a valuable tactic in the fight against crime and disorder to keep people and communities safe. Their use is highly regulated and governed in law through the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and must be necessary, proportionate and lawful. The deployment of undercover officers is also overseen by the Surveillance Commissioner who must be satisfied by their use.

Guy Taylor has since been accepted as a core participant for the Undercover Policing Inquiry due to his role as the sole paid employee of Globalise Resistance during the time it was spied upon by Simon Wellings.

On 19 January 2017, the Undercover Policing Inquiry issued a press release confirming Simon Wellings had been an undercover police officer. It was also revealed that he was not a core participant; as with other undercovers and related officers, he had been given a n-series cypher number as N118.

Special Demonstration Squad

As an undercover officer based in London, Simon Wellings was deployed by the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) rather than the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. It is as yet unknown who his immediate handlers were, but the SDS was part of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch. The chain of command of senior officers during his deployment is given below.

Police chain of command

Position	Person
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police	John Stevens (2000 - 2004) Ian Blair (2001-2008)
Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations	David Veness (April 1994 - Feb 2005) Andy Hayman (Feb 2005- Dec 2007)
Deputy Assistant Commissioner (Security)	Barbara Wilding (-2002-2003) Susanna Becks (2004-2007).
Head of Special Branch / SO12	Roger Pearce (1999-2003) - also Director of Intelligence Colin Black was temporary Commander of Special Branch at start of 2004 Janet Williams (2003-2006) Phil Gormley (2006-2007)
Controller of Operations (Special Branch)	Det. Ch. Supt. Robert Milton / Colin Black
Head of SDS
SDS Controller of Operations

Connections to other undercovers

Wellings deployment closely overlapped with other known Special Demonstration Squad undercovers, Carlo Neri who targeted the Socialist Party and anti-fascists 2001 to 2005 and Jason Bishop who was deployed into anti-capitalits and anti-arms trade groups 1998 to . They are likely to have been at a number of the same large protests in London, and in particular, he and Bishop are both known to have been present at the 2003 Disarm DSEi protests.

Other undercovers from the SDS he would have known in his early deployment were Dave Evans who targeted the Socialist Party and animal rights (1998-2005), Jackie Anderson who was in north London anti-capitalists / anarchists (2000-2005) and James Straven in south London animal rights groups until 2002. Likwise Ross McInnes in the United British Alliance and Darren Prowse who was set up to infiltrate the British National Party but never deployed.

Structure of SDS in its last years

Later in his deployment he would have seen new undecovers being deployed, including Dave Jones who infiltrated environmentalists, particularly London Rising Tide (2005-2007) and in particular Rob Harrison, who infiltrated anti-capitialists but who appers to have started off targeting Globalise Resistance on his initial deployment in 2004. As such, he was probably Welling's replacement there, though he had nowhere near the same prominence in the group.

Bishop and Evans were also active around Dissent! in Scotland during the G8 summit itself. However, through Dissent! Wellings would have been around other undercovers from the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, particularly Lynn Watson (2002-2008), Mark Kennedy (2003-2010) and Marco Jacobs (2004-2009). Of these, he would have been present with Mark at the Stirling Eco-village in Scotland.

It is notable that Wellings was active with SDS into 2007, however, by this time he would have done longer than the average deployment of four to five years, so his withdrawal from the field is not unexpected. It is as yet unknown if he was still with the SDS for the closeure of that unit in late 2007 (see under HN30 for details).

The CO11 / Public Order Branch link

A key piece of data from the recorded phone call is that one of the officers involved makes a reference to photographs having come from CO11, who were pressing for intelligence on individuals in the images. CO11 was the Metropolitan Police's Public Order Branch; it ran the Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) whose main job was to photograph and identify individuals at demonstrations. It shows one method by which intelligence was passed from Special Branch undercover officers to other parts of the police; it also mirrors an account from another SDS officer, whistle-blower Peter Francis, who talks of identifying demonstrators from photographs in the aftermath of the anti-BNP protests at Welling in 1993.

At the time CO11 / Public Order Branch was under Commander Michael Messinger and Superintendent Roger Gomm, as part of the Territorial Policing division who had overseen the policing of many of the protests Globalise Resistance had been involved in. While it has long been suspected that there was an intelligence flow between Special Branch and the FIT. (CO11 ran its own intelligence database) this phone call is among the first clear evidence of the exchange in practice.

Public Order Branch was based at New Scotland Yard and under the authority of the Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing, who at the time was Tim Godwin.

Undercover Policing Inquiry

That Wellings was an undercover police officer was confirmed by the Undercover Policing Inquiry on 19 January 2017, when the Inquiry issued a press release to the effect. It stated that no restriction would be sought for the cover name 'Simon Wellings' on behalf of the police officer known given the nominal 'N118' (for the purposes of Operation Herne). It also noted that N118 was not a core participant in the Inquiry.

An apparent reference to Wellings occurred in the Mosaic report, produced by the Metropolitan Police, which stated (p.3/4):

In another example following an unfortunate compromise (where the officer was overheard discussing his operation during a mistakenly dialled phone-call) an officer was re-directed to groups in a different target area.

20 February 2018, the Inquiry issued directions that any application for restriction orders to be submitted by 26 & 28 February 2018 for Metropolitan Police legal team and Designated Lawyers Team respectively, which included a reference to Wellings as HN118. On 27 February 2018, the Metropolitan Police filed an application to restrict his real name only.

On 27 March 2018, Inquiry Chair, John Mitting indicated he would restrict HN118's real name, stating:

HN118 is in his 50s, married and with children. He is economically active. He was deployed successively against three groups in the last years of existence of the Special Duties Squad.... There is no reason currently known to me which would require or justify publication of his real name. He is concerned that it would attract unwelcome media attention and give rise to a risk of harassment of his family and of interference in his work. I am satisfied that these concerns are genuine and not irrational. What has already been published will permit those with whom he interacted during his deployment to provide information and to give evidence about it, if they choose to do so. Publication of his real name is not necessary to permit the terms of reference of the Inquiry to be fulfilled.

In those circumstances, the interference which it would cause with his right to respect for private and family life would not be proportionate or justified under Article 8(2) of the European Convention.

Inquiry website lists Wellings time in the SDS as 2001 to 2007, and his targets as Globalise Resistance, the Socialist Worker Party and the Dissent! network.

On 15 May 2018: the Inquiry ruled that the officer's real name shall be restricted.