Lawrence Review Team

This article is part of the Undercover Research Portal - a project of the Undercover Research Group in conjunction with SpinWatch.

The Lawrence Review Team (LRT) was a selected group of police officers operating out of the staff office of then Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon in 1998 and reporting to the highest levels. The Team was central to the Metropolitan Police response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry of Sir William Macpherson, drafting the submissions and preparing the overall policy. Its background briefings provided the basis of decisions by senior officers dealing with the accusations of racism following the murder of Stephen Lawrence. All the officers involved would go on to high rank in the police over the following fifteen years.

In 2014, the Ellison Review discovered that the LRT had had a secret meeting with undercover officer N81 who was infiltrated in groups around the Lawrence campaign in 1998 and also withheld crucial information on corruption of officers involved to the original murder investigation to the Macpherson Inquiry. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (ICCP) has since opened investigations into several (former) officers involved back in the days.

This page is one of series on N81 and the spying on the Stephen Lawrence campaign.

Background

In 1993 black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in Eltham in South London by a racist gang. The subsequent campaign for justice put intense pressure on the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as it became evident that the police response had been serious failings, tainted by corruption and racism. It became one of the defining events of the MPS in the 1990s, seriously challenging its reputation.

The fallout of the murder and subsequent controversy would dominate Paul Condon's tenure as Commissioner. In dealing with it he relied on a number of senior officers to shape his response, Assistant Commissioners (ACs) Ian Johnston and Denis O'Connor in particular. Both would be part of the Lawrence Review Team and both would appear in public with Condon in relation to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Johnston delivered the dramatic public apology to the Lawrence family on behalf of Condon at the Inquiry, and attended a number of meetings to discuss the MPS response to the Macpherson Inquiry. He had also been given charge of territorial policing in the South East Area which included Eltham where the murder had taken place. O'Connor was the man who brought together the Lawrence Review Team, and who sat next to Condon when the Commissioner eventually appeared before Macpherson.

The Macpherson Inquiry sat in two parts. The first was a series of hearings in Elephant and Castle in London. It then took a break before it would start taking written responses and resume public hearings, including outside of London. However, by the summer of 1998, it was clear that the Metropolitan Police were to be severely castigated - accused of 'institutional racism amongst other things - and could expect calls from the Lawrence family for the Commissioner's resignation.

In 2014, Mark Ellison QC investigated claims that police corruption around the original murder inquiry had been withheld from the Macpherson Inquiry, and the claim by undercover officer Peter Francis that he had been tasked with finding information to smear the Lawrence family and Duwayne Brooks, the friend of Stephen Lawrence who was present when he was murdered.

Ellison discovered that in this highly tensioned and politicised situation, a member of the LRT, Richard Walton had had a secret meeting with N81, an officer with the Special Branch undercover unit the Special Demonstration Squad. The officer, code-named 'N81', was infiltrating a group working with the Lawrence family campaign and was passing on personal information about the family. Four former officers plus Richard Walton are now under investigaton by the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) for their involvement in creating this channel between the LRT and Special Branch undercovers. The IPCC is also investigating then-deputy commissioner of the MPS Lord Stevens for withholding information from the Macpherson Inquiry.

Also see:

• Blog: Walton, the Watchdog and much more questions

Formation and staff

The Lawrence Review Team was brought together in 1998 by Assistant Commissioner Denis O'Connor. The main group were Bob Quick, Sara Thornton and Mark Simmons, all with rank of Superintendent. Quick had been a DCI serving in Croydon and staff officer to Johnston , and appears to have assumed leadership of the Team in April 1998. He continued to answer to Assistant Commissioner Ian Johnston, though he reported directly to Condon as well, according to the Ellison Review. Quick brought in a fourth officer A/DI Richard Walton, previously in Special Branch, who had been selected as he was on accelerated promotion. Little is known of Mark Simmons prior to this; Thornton is known to have had experience in the specialist operations units.

The role of Matt Baggott in the Lawrence Review Team is unclear as he does not appear in much of the publicly released documentation. This may because known minutes all date after June 1998, when he is when he was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police.. In a witness statement before the Leveson Inquiry, he says that he headed up the Lawrence Review Team. It is likely that his position was taken over by Bob Quick, which is why Quick is named as heading up the team by some sources, but he does not claim this position for himself.

The LRT was situated in the staff (or 'private') office of Condon, at the same corridor as the Commissioner according to John Stevens, Deputy Commissioner in 1998. Submissions to the Macpherson Inquiry were discussed at LRT meetings, before going to senior management meetings where Paul Condon, Ian Johnston and John Grieve would be present.

Work of the LRT and division of labour

In a report by the then acting head of the SDS, Bob Lambert, on the meeting between undercover N81 and Richard Walton of the LRT (detailed below), the latter is quoted as saying the three main areas the team were addressing as:

1. How to respond to the charge of institutional racism.
2. How to regain the confidence of the black community.
3. How to handle the second stage of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry

The last point included an issue of vulnerability to protest a Public Meeting where the Commissioner wanted to set out the MPS's position. There were daily discussions in the Team regarding the best tactics to adopt, including the question of the resignations of Paul Condon and Assistant Commissioner Ian Johnston.

Ellison heard varying summaries from those involved on what the focus of the LRT:

• John Grieves: 'to both monitor what was being heard at the SLI (Stephen Lawrence Inquiry) and prepare our responses in part two.' (John Grieve)
• Bob Quick: 'to support the MPS response to the Stephen Lawrence Public Inquiry and the development of a new approach to policing diverse communities across London'.
• Liaise with the Metropolitan Police's Department of Legal Services (Jeremy Gompertz, Jason Beer) and the counsel representing the MPS before Macpherson over the final written and oral submissions to be made on behalf of the MPS, and to review and analyse all 'Lawrence-related' material

John Grieve explained the division of work:

…They (Mark Simmons & Sara Thornton) were the specific staff officers to deal with the Stephen Lawrence and diversity agenda. The way it was packaged up was, Bob Quick was responsible for the submissions for part two (of the Macpherson Inquiry) and ran a team for part two, but Sara and Mark were responsible for the day-to-day monitoring and thinking up how the responses would work. And then, when I was brought in, I was given the operational side of it, but they would be doing the staff officers side, so I spent a lot of time with them.

Simmons and Thornton also looked at the MPS's general approach to diversity and racism – whether internally or in the wider policing of racial crime. Sara Thornton, who played a central role in the LRT in summer 1998, said her 'area of focus was what was described as Part Two of the Inquiry and the submissions being developed on that by the Review Team'. Jason Beer, then junior counsel for the MPS before the Inquiry confirmed that "the MPS Lawrence Review Team was indeed a heavy contributor to the final submissions that the MPS presented.

Richard Walton told Ellison how he remembered the role of the LRT as it was in summer 1998:

Bob Quick created a team of, if you like, bright young things that would come in and do a review of the whole thing... the murder investigation itself, the review undertaken by the Detective Chief Superintendent (Barker) and the Kent investigation...We were asked by Paul Condon, effectively to look at the Met’s vulnerabilities around it, because it looked like it was going so badly... there was a team of about 12 of us... maybe eight or ten...

Yes, well the Met’s submission to [Part One of] the Lawrence Inquiry was written by us effectively. I wrote Chapter 12, which is the Met’s response to the allegations of racism... We produced that document and I remember going back and forth into the Commissioner’s office – Paul Condon at the time – on a couple of occasions when we were presenting to him our findings. What our findings were, were that – well, I mean, racism was debatable in terms of whether it was wilful institutional racism or unwitting, etc., and that debate followed. We found incompetence, clearly, and we found some corruption, the famous DS Davidson. To this day I will stand by that report. I still think that it is absolutely factually correct... we were working all of us 10 to 15 hours a day, all of us, actually around the clock... It was called the Lawrence Review Team...

Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force

The LRT helped inform the establishment of the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force (RVCTF / CO24) under John Grieve. The work of the team was a continuation of the LRT, while there was also an overlap in staff. Grieve was given the job of rebuilding relationships between the Metropolitan Police and the black community. As well as being involved in high-level discussions within the Metropolitan Police over their response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, he sat in on a number of the hearings. His staff officer, DI Stephen Kavanagh, would go to all the hearings and take a role in shaping the Metropolitan Police response. In 1999 the Task Force would also take on take on the second investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

The withholding information on police corruption

Once of the charges that Ellison was asked to investigate was whether the Metropolitan Police had withheld information on police corruption around the original murder investigation. The Lawrence family was convinced that corruption had played a part in the failure of the original murder investigation and it was an issue that the Macpherson Inquiry was actively pursuing. The claims focused on Det. Sgt. John Davidson, one of the original investigation team, having corrupt links with known criminal Clifford Norris, the father of one of the suspects, David Norris. The claims were subject of a secret anti-corruption operation that grew out of Operation Othona.

Operation Othona had been drawn up by Roy Clark and implemented by John Grieve in the mid-1990s. At the time Clark had taken up a position under Johnston, while Grieve was Director of Intelligence in the Specialist Operations Division lead by AC David Veness. Prior to that, both had been Chief Superintendents in North London at the time of the Hackney Police Corruption Hackney / Stoke Newington police corruption scandal and the infiltration of Mark Jenner into the Colin Roach Centre where local anti-police corruption / deaths in custody campaigns were based – Clark overseeing the corrupt Stoke Newington Station, and Grieve in neighbouring Bethnal Green.

By 1998 the anti-corruption units were under the remit of then Deputy Commissioner John Stevens who told Ellison that any enquiry on the corruption side would go to Baggott and Sara Thornton on the one hand, ànd to Wood on the other. Ch. Supt. David Wood was running the “Ghost Squad”, the secret anti-corruption unit CIB3, which alongside Ch. Supt. Chris Jarratt of Complaints Investigation Bureau Intelligence Cell, was implementing the active side of Operation Othona. Wood had been mentored by Roy Clark, while Jarratt was a former staff officer of David Veness..

Ellison retrieved several letters written by Macpherson in the summer of 1998, asking the Metropolitan Police whether any officers were under investigation. Stevens replied on 6 June 1998 denying there was any investigation into police corruption which would be relevant to the Inquiry. Then, in a letter of 11 September 1998 he mentioned John Davidson being under investigation but said that there was no link with Clifford Norris (the father of one of the suspects in the murder, David Norris).

At the same time, however, another corrupt officer, Neil Putnam, was telling the anti-corruption unit CIB3 that there indeed was such a connection (which was the first time a link between Davidson and Norris was identified). Putnam wanted his evidence to go before Macpherson, but was told by those debriefing him that in the light of the Inquiry, it would 'blow apart' the Met.

When pressed about the letters written in his name, Stevens told Ellison he had not been involved in any discussion around them. Instead he claimed they were drafted by the LRT and that the Team had the responsibility of possible 'implications in terms of what CIB3 know’, stating: 'Nobody would have sent a letter to Macpherson without going through that review team, because they were the choke point, so to speak, of any information going up and that is what had happened up to that date.

In April 2015, the IPCC announced it would launch an investigation into former deputy Met commissioner Lord Stevens and his involvement of the failure to pass documents to the 1998 Stephen Lawrence public inquiry. He is, however, not the only senior police officer being investigated over the question whether there had been 'full, frank and truthful' disclosure of information to the Macpherson inquiry. Stevens told Channel 4 that the Ellison inquiry had assured him there was no suggestion that he 'did anything that was culpable in any way'. He also told the programme: 'Step very carefully, I’m not putting up with any more crap about this'.

Undercover debriefing

One of the most controversial aspects of the Lawrence Review Team was a secret meeting held on 14 August 1998 between Richard Walton and an undercover police officer, known only as N81. The meeting was revealed for the first time in the Ellison Review who was looking into the allegations of another former undercover officer Peter Francis, that he had been tasked to find information which could be used against the Lawrence family and Duwayne Brooks.

Both N81 and Peter Francis were with Special Demonstration Squad, the highly secretive unit within Special Branch. At the time, the unit's effective head was Det. Insp. Bob Lambert (who was also N81's handler), at whose house in North London the meeting took place. Ellison quotes the file note written by Lambert reporting on the meeting:

• DI Walton presented himself at the meeting as being currently engaged with the MPS Lawrence Review Team, and said that he "continued to prepare a draft submission to the inquiry on behalf of the Commissioner"; and
• N81 and DI Walton had discussed the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry at the meeting from their own perspectives and that it had been a 'fascinating and valuable exchange on an issue that Mr Walton had said continued to dominate the Commissioner’s agenda on a daily basis', and that their 'in-depth discussion enabled (Mr Walton) to increase his understanding of the Lawrences’ relationship with the various campaigning groups... of great value as he continued to prepare a draft submission to the inquiry on behalf of the Commissioner'.

While Ellison is highly critical of the presence of an undercover officer within the campaigns around the Lawrence family, he is equally critical that this meeting happened, stating. 'We find the opening of such a channel of communication at that time to have been ‘wrong-headed’ and inappropriate'.

Part of the concern was that N81 was passing on personal information about the Lawrence family themselves and the family's justice campaign to the SDS. Ellison was also acutely aware of the impact of the potential public disorder that would have been likely had it become public knowledge there was a well-placed spy in the Lawrence camp at such a sensitive time. However, Ellison did note had to conclude that: 'We have found no evidence to indicate that what Mr Walton discovered from N81 at the meeting was actually incorporated into or used towards the final submissions made on behalf of the MPS.

The passing of undercover intelligence to the LRT

Besides the meeting of 14 August 1998, there are a number of comments that indicate there was more regular passage of information from the SDS to the Lawrence Review Team.

N81 states in an interview to Operation Herne in August 2013:

... I was informed, at the height of the Macpherson inquiry, that my reporting was going straight to Sir Paul Condon’s desk each morning via N24, and N127 (SDS Sgt) passed on to me from N24 ‘congratulations from the Commissioner for your excellent reporting...’

Lambert's immediate superior (known only as DCI N58) discussing the 14 August meeting in a SDS Intelligence Briefing written early September 1998, included the following:

Source protection dictates that SDS assistance to the Stephen Lawrence Review team should continue to be restricted to the current channels as outlined above: regular reporting to C Squad and additional discreet briefings to A/DI Walton when necessary.

In an interview with Operation Herne in 2013, Lambert says:

DI Walton was at that time one of our customers I suppose, he was a particular customer with a particular requirement because he was working directly for the Commissioner in relation to the Metropolitan Police response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry... I also recall that ‘Pete Francis’s’ intelligence around the campaign was passed to DI Walton for the same purpose...

Fallout

When Ellison informed Richard Walton he was to be criticised, Walton attempted to alter his account of the meeting. Key to this was that at the time of the meeting, he claimed he was working for the newly formed Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force under John Grieve, which was part of the Metropolitan Police's response to the anticipated criticisms of Macpherson. And thus the meeting was held in context of that work. Ellison investigated this, but stated in conclusion:

We simply found Mr Walton’s changed recollection advanced in February 2014 about this meeting to be unconvincing.

The subsequent publishing of the report led to a public outcry over the confirmation there had been a police spy close to the Lawrence family. Walton was temporarily removed from his prestigious post as head of Counter Terrorism Command and the case was referred to the IPCC. Bob Lambert and his superior Colin Black are also under investigation. After more than a year of silence the IPCC announced the net was widened to include two more former-officers involved or having known of the disputed meeting.

Also see:

• N81: IPCC investigation
• Richard Walton

Subsequent careers

All the officers involved in the Lawrence Review Team and the anti-corruption units would go on to high rank in the police over the following fifteen years. While this can be explained as successful career developments, there is also an element of powerful people networking their way up to the top.

• Ian Johnston: given charge of South East London from 1994 to 2000, initially as Deputy Assistant Commissioner then as Assistant Commissioner. From 2000 to 2009 he took over as Chief Constable of the British Transport Police, then took up the post as Director of Security and Resilience for the 2012 London Olympics.
• Denis O'Connor: in 1995 replaced Paul Manning as Assistant Commission for South West London. In 2000 he took over as Chief Constable of Surrey, and from 2004-12 he was HM Inspector of Constabulary. Under his time in South West London, Operation Trident is begun, which in later years has Michael Fuller and Stephen Kavanagh associated with it.
• John Grieve: tasked with taking on board the lessons and criticisms of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and saving the reputation of the Metropolitan Police in the face the finding that it was institutionally racist. As well as wider advisory capacity, he founded the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force / CO24, and set up Operation Athena and Athena Tower, the latter an operation against the killers of Stephen Lawrence. Authorised the bugging of the solicitor of Duwayne Brooks by DCI Michael Jones in 2000. Retires in 2003
• Brian Hayes: Deputy Commissioner 1995-98 where he had oversight of the anti-corruption units. He authorises Roy Clark's investigation into corrupt detectives at the Riggs Approach station. He is replaced by John Stevens. He had previously been Chief Constable of Surrey Police (1982-91).
• Bob Quick: in 1999 he became Detective Superintendent of operations at CIB3 which had been set up to investigate corruption the police, particularly around those who had investigated the murder of Stephen Lawrence. In this he served under Andy Hayman. In 2001 he is a Commander under Veness in helping shape the MPS response to 9/11 in the counter-terrorism units, then a commander in Territorial Policing, where he works once again with Walton, and also Kavanagh on Project Sapphire (combating rape and sexual violence). 2003 he is Deputy Chief Constable of Surrey under O'Connor, before succeeding him in 2004. In 2008 he and would later succeed both Veness and Hayman as Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations until forced to resign the following year.
• Sara Thornton: in 2000 she was appointed head of Specialist Operations for Thames Valley Police, rising to become Chief Constable there in 2007.
• Mark Simmons: would take over as Borough Commander for Tower Hamlets / Bethnal Green (Grieve's old position), rising to Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing (South London); as DAC he would initiate Operation Soissons / Herne, to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by undercover police including the SDS.
• Richard Walton: From the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force, he would head up Project Sapphire, and become Borough Commander of Harrow. After a spell as Staff Officer to Commissioner Paul Stephenson, he will become Commander of Counter Terrorism Command (including the former Special Branch) in 2011.
• Matt Baggott: becomes Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police in 1998, Deputy Chief Constable in 2001, Chief Constable of Leicestershire 2001, and in 2009 is appointed Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Additional UndercoverResearch resources

• N81: Profile from the Ellison Report,
• N81: Meeting with the Lawrence Review Team
• N81: File Notes SDS
• N81: IPCC investigation

• Blog: Walton, the Watchdog and much more questions

• Bob Lambert
• Richard Walton
• Bob Quick
• Sara Thornton
• John Grieve
• Matt Baggott

External Sources

• The Ellison Review Full title: The Stephen Lawrence Independent Review, Possible corruption and the role of undercover policing in the Stephen Lawrence case. Vol. 1. March 2014.
• Operation Herne Full title: Operation Herne, Report 2, Allegations of Peter Francis, March 2014.
• Rob Evans, Police facing claims that senior officers knew about spying on Stephen Lawrence family, The Guardian, 2 July 2015.