Carlo Neri (alias)

Carlo Neri is the alias of an undercover police officer who infiltrated the Socialist Party and anti-fascists groups. He was active from 2001 to 2006 and based in north and central London - which makes us think he served with the Special Demonstration Squad

Much of the following information comes from interviews with various members of the Socialist Party and anti-fascist activists who knew Carlo and in particular from two of his partners while undercover.

An investigation conducted through summer and autumn 2015 by the Undercover Research Group working in conjunction with those affected provided sufficient material to identify Carlo's real name and documents confirming he was a serving police officer at the time (details below). We decided not to publish Carlo's real surname as its distinctiveness would invade the privacy of various parties who are not otherwise involved.

N.B. This page is a work in process; we welcome additions from those who encountered Carlo. Contact us here, PGP available on request.

Personal Details

Carlo was a large man, with thinning black hair that he kept short and a beard that he kept trimmed as a goatee or allowed to grow long. One ear was pierced. He gave his birthday as 12 February 1971. He was considered a friendly, sociable person who was 'good crack to be around', and a 'genuinely nice fella'.

He said very little about his political background prior to becoming a member of the Socialist Party, and visitors to his first known residence noticed nothing political other than a few left-leaning novels. He did not give the impression of looking for information and nor did he seem interested in reading up on stuff (though he would not have been unusual in this). He is considered to have weak politics, not talking much about stuff; people who knew him said they had no Marxist or Trotskyite conversations with him, but rather tended to discuss music and football. In terms of music he had what was described as the 'usual Italian left classics'.

He was a keen supporter of Arsenal, though he had a love of rugby in Italy. His partner at the time, Andrea, wrote that he 'was a huge fan of Bologna - we went to see them in England and in Italy - in England the only team we went to see play was Fulham when they were housed at QPR.' (QPR refers to the Loftus Road stadium of Queens Park Rangers in West London) He was also into speed cycling, and despite his size his muscles looked as a cyclist's. Andrea recalls an album with lots of photos of him at various cycling races when younger, and also of him snorkelling and diving. By the time he was living with her, Carlo was much more in to motorbikes, including using the email address, 'MinesADucati@Yahoo.co.uk'.

He was one of the few people in the Socialist Party who had a car, which meant he was often called on to help with house moves, etc. He was also willing to take other people on long drives to other parts of the country, including Cornwall.

Interviewees have told us that though Carlo talked about doing illegal activities quite a lot, they have no knowledge of him breaking the law through his political activism. He claimed to have been detained in Italy for urinating in a police car, but this was far removed from his activity in the UK.

Another theme that came up was the 'clean, slightly obsessive organisation of the few things he had.'

Background & Family

Neri claimed to be a Londoner of Italian background, (he told several activists that he was born in the UK, and London in particular) whose family had run a café for before moving back to Italy when Carlo was 14 or 15 - which must have been around 1985. He had only been back in the UK a year or so when he came on the political scene in 2001. There were no relatives left in London. He implied to his partner Andrea that the family background had been troubled and involved domestic abuse; at another point he told her he did not get on with his father as he had sexually abused Carlo's sister. These accounts of troubled relations do not seem to correspond with the many visits to his father and his distress over his ill health.

His father, Enrico (Rico), lived in Bologna and Carlo would go away for several weeks at a time, supposedly to visit him, especially towards the end of his presence on the scene. According to Andrea his father died around January 2004, and other activists remember Carlo speaking of how ill his father was and crying over the phone. His mother Eva Neri, supposedly died ca. 2001, of ovarian cancer in Italy. He also spoke of a sister Cristina, "Ren", who lived outside of the London (Luton / Cambridgeshire direction), who was apparently ill and he visited regularly. He told Andrea that Cristina lived near Peterborough, suffered from depression and had a strained relationship with her husband, by whom she had two children. He also spoke of being close to a female cousin, a nurse in Italy. There were photos of all these family members in his photo-album.

Carlo had a London accent. He could speak Italian though reluctantly, and he had a British passport in the name Carlo Neri, which he claimed to have to avoid conscription in Italy.

Visitors to his first flat noted he had less than ten books, none of which were recalled as being in Italian. While with Andrea he did have books in Italian, particularly those of Italo Calvino the Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels; she described his collection as 'mainly political or serious novels, Chomsky, some photography books and no rubbish'.

A son

About a year into being on the scene, Neri started mentioning that he had son, 'Robbie' / 'Roberto', who lived with his mother. He was supposed to be three years old in December 2002. The story was that he was the product of a short relationship with an older woman, Anne, he had met while acting as a locksmith at the family home in North London. At first she did not want Carlo to be involved with raising Robbie, but she subsequently moved to Cornwall and wanted him to help out while she travelled to work. To another activist he said he had re-established contact with his son and would go away for several days at a time to visit him. There seems to have been some secrecy implied in letting this on, and it was only told to people sometime after he came on the scene, and it seemed a big deal for him that he was letting people know. He did have pictures of Robbie while living with Andrea, some together with other family pictures out on a bookshelf in the flat.

Occupation

At first he acted as a locksmith, saying he worked for the locksmiths and tools company, Franchi in Hackney It is of notice that he was a genuine locksmith and changed the locks on the houses for various people in and around the Socialist Party. According to Andrea he was indeed handy with such stuff, for instance he managed to open the car of an activist who had left the keys inside by accident.

He was also a good cook, doing genuine Bolognese cuisine and was at ease cooking for large numbers of people - he once cooked a Burns night meal for 50-60 people at Andrea's flat. At one point he took various friends to an Italian restaurant, De Santis on Old Street, and cooked them a meal there, claiming it belonged to a friend of his father This was shortly before he took up a job as a chef at an Italian import/export company. He said he had never planned to be a cook/chef, but had fallen into it through this friend - and that he was trying out different jobs.

Circa October/November 2003 he said he held a job with a North London delicatessen / restaurant / catering firm which was involved in importing food, and on whose behalf he would have to do considerable travelling to Modena and elsewhere to purchase food. The job allowed him to give a friend an Italian coffee maker as a present. At another point, he turned up at a party of an SP activist with a very large bottle (storage jar size) of wine, saying the delivery man for the company he was working for brought it back from Italy for him.

He was very big into to the history of Italian coffee in the UK, and was also apparently trained in fixing coffee machines. He was noted for his fondness for veal, and for always having fine food around. Andrea also noted that despite not having much money, they did eat out quite a bit in nice restaurants, including some that were quite expensive.

Vehicles

Unlike others around him, Neri had a car, which meant he was called on to help out with various things. He was ready to use it to help others on the political scene. In his time with Andrea he had two cars (one blue, one black), both estates loaned to him by his work. He also owned a Suzuki motorbike which he had purchased on moving in with her - he claimed that his work had loaned him the money for it, and he had paid them back. She also said of him that in hindsight 'he drove like a cop'.

Activities: Groups

Carlo principle activities were with the Socialist Party. He claimed he had been involved with Anti-Fascist Action (which had dissolved as an organisation by then) and that he had connections to the Red Brigades (the revolutionary group in Italy), though without giving detail. By mentioning the Red Brigades in conversation he may have been on a ‘fishing expedition’ not realising that the SP is opposed to all terrorism.

Carlo demonstrated no interest in trade union activity. He does not appear to have sought to provoke activities (with the one exception - the Roberto Fiore shop, see below).

Socialist Party

Carlo's first identified arrival on the political scene in North London was in 2001 when he started talking to Socialist Party (SP) members on a demonstration in London. The Socialist Party is a Trotskyist political party previously known as Militant (Labour). It also worked through the group Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE), which had been previously targeted by another undercover, Peter Francis. When Carlo wanted to join the Hackney branch of the party, his details were passed on to local SP members who visited to sound him out - which was normal procedure.

Carlo regularly attended SP branch meetings in Hackney and Camden, and became friends with party members - in particular with 'Andy' and his partner. (Andy was under constant attention from the police at the time, including on occasion being followed). He did have some involvement in YRE, but the organisation was winding down at that point. Carlo did befriend Belgian activist who was involved in the international wing of the SP in London and who attended a number of international meetings. The fact that Carlo 'latched onto him' indicates that he was interested in obtaining information about the international work of the Socialist Party - campaigning work in trade unions, strikes, housing campaigns anti-racist and anti-fascist work across Europe.

The Socialist Party was also involved in stewarding anti-war demonstrations and anti-fascist events. Carlo did present himself as a big bloke who could handle himself if needed, and talked himself up about being an anti-fascist to some activists. However, he came across as being wary of taking part in confrontations and as someone who through their size had never had the need to fight. Still, he did attend a number of protests, including on occasion driving a carload of people to anti-fascist demonstrations, the last recalled time being in Shenfield circa 2005. There are no accounts of him being arrested.

Carlo went out of his way to befriend leading figures of the Socialist Party. For instance, people remember that when going to the ESF event in Florence (see below), he travelled with the General Secretary and National Treasurer of the Party.

Carlo had three relationships while undercover, one of them with Andrea (see below). Speaking of her time with him, Andrea said it felt like they attended every social event in the Socialist Party calendar across London. In particular, in June 2003 he and Andrea attended a party at the house of the daughter of Socialist Party general secretary; noticeable in that it gave Carlo an opportunity to meet many more SP people across all of London and lead to invites to other SP events.

Activism: Specific Events

As noted above, Carlo seemed to be talking up his desire to be confrontational while in fact he actively avoided situations of public order or confrontation. He was more notable for his absence from a number of significant events, including the Socialist Party presence at the front of a large anti-Iraq war protest in London in late 2002.

Bradford Riots: July 2001

On 7 July 2001, the Anti Nazi League had called a rally in the city of Bradford, following attempts by the British National Party and the National Front to organise in the city. The aftermath saw serious rioting, many people got arrested and a number sent to jail. Carlo drove a group of north London activists to Bradford to support the Anti Nazi League protest. They stayed in Leeds overnight. It appears that driving them up was his main contribution.

European Social Forum, 2002

Carlo went to Florence, Italy in November 2002 to attend the European Social Forum being held there. He went earlier than others, claiming he was going to meet Italian activists beforehand. Socialist Party members did encounter him there, though not his claimed Italian colleagues.)

Anti War demo: February 2003

Attended the protest in London with a number of his friends from the Socialist Party, and acted as a lead steward.

Red, White and Blue Festival: April 2004

The Red, White and Blue Festival was an annual gathering of British National Party activists. In 2004 it took place near Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex, and it is known that Carlo was among a group of anti-fascists who had gathered to protest against it.

Shenfield: ca. 2005

Carlo drove people to a demonstration against a BNP rally in Shenfield organised by the Anti Nazi League and helped steward the demo.

"Fiore's charity shop"

In one incident, circa 2003-2004, he claimed that a charity shop in North London was a front for a fascist training camp in Spain, run by Italian fascist and suspect Bologna bomber, Roberto Fiore. He came up with a plan to petrol bomb it and tried to involve others, but this drunken scheme was never followed through. This incident is unusual in that it appears to be the only time he sought to provoke a situation.

Residences & Relationships overview

When Jay first met him, in 2001, Carlo lived in a small house in Hackney which Jay described as feeling empty or just moved into, but also clean and organised. He then moved to a small one bed flat above a shop also in Hackney, (some remember it as a shared house).

Within six months in the party, he began a relationship with Lindsey, which lasted a few months before coming to an end(see below). Carlo then disappeared for a significant period time, though on his return he quickly started a relationship with Andrea in September 2002 (see below), and moved in with her at her place on the other side of north central London in November 2002. After their 18-20 month relationship ended in May 2004, he went to a flat near the Barbican that belonged to activists who had left the city for six months until November 2004.

He then moved into the house of another SP activist, 'Mike' for approximately 8-10 moths until October 2005, though he was rarely there ('barely stayed a dozen nights'), which did not arouse suspicion as he had started dating Beth (see below). In the same period, Neri told 'Bill', then an organiser with a trade union, that being made homeless he was looking for a place to stay. Bill said he could use his spare room, which he did for eight weeks, though he would disappear for days at a time without contact.

After the relationship with Andrea ended he embarked on a third relationship, with Beth. He moved in with her in 2006, leaving Bill's house at this point as well. The two of them subsequently disappeared from the scene later that year.

Relationships with women

From very early on, Carlo referred to himself as single, and seemed to be sad about that. As he sold himself as a kind and open man, his new friends were looking out for single women. He had three relationships while undercover; the last one the most intriguing as he disappeared with her.

Lindsey

Within six months after his first appearance on the scene, Carlo hit it off with 'Lindsey', a close friend and ex SP member at a night out with Hackney SP friends. 'Mike' remembers how Carlo called him on the way to their first date a few days later, asking for directions and advice, sounding genuinely excited to be meeting her. They started a relationship soon afterwards and continued to see each other very regularly, usually daily, often at Carlo's flat in Hackney, and sometimes at Lindsey's flat in South London. Though spending a lot of time together, the only thing she was never invited to were Carlo's meetings with his football friends. The story was these friends were connected to his work as a locksmith, and they would play or watch football together, but Lindsey was never introduced to any of them.

A couple of months after they met, Carlo began to mention to Lindsey that he had a young son from a short previous relationship, but had not seen him since he was a baby. He told her that this was a secret, as he was confused as to what to do and to tell people. They discussed if he should re-establish contact, and she encouraged him to - but he never got to doing it. Carlo had pictures of his son, which he showed to Lindsey and then to other friends, as his son became less of a secret.

Carlo continued a seemingly committed relationship with Lindsey. Their first date was the end of May 2001, the same day Lindsay lost her job. In September 2001, he travelled to her home town for her surprise birthday party and was introduced to her family and some old friends. In December, Carlo booked them a holiday to Venice, and began to voice intentions to make it a more serious relationship.

In early 2002 however, Carlo began to 'disappear' for 3-4 day periods at a time. The explanation he would give for being unreachable would be that he was with football mates. This behaviour led Lindsey to cool towards Carlo and their relationship began to falter, finally ending in roughly February 2002, after about eight-nine months.

Towards the end of their relationship, Carlo's mother apparently became ill and he visited her in Italy. At first he was quite upbeat about her recovery, but later he told his friends that she was seriously ill, and that she had died in Spring 2002. Although their relationship had ended, he talked to Lindsey a couple of times about his grief. They met up as friends just twice after that.

Andrea

'Andrea' (an alias) was not a member of the Socialist Party, but worked for a London homeless organisation. There she got to know Andy, and subsequently became friends with his partner.

According to Andrea, she met Carlo on an anti-War protest on 28th September 2002, where he was with a group of SP members; he soon moved in with her to her north London housing association flat in November that year. About their relationship she says: 'We were pretty much inseparable at this stage and he seemed keen for me to be involved in all aspects of his (London) social life and political life'. In December 2002, they would make several trips to Scotland, first to the graduation of Andrea's sister, and the second to go to a Stiff Little Fingers gig in Kilmarnock - this was apparently at Carlo's suggestion, and they went with another prominent anti-fascist. This is when she first learns Carlo had a son.

At the Hogmanay Party they threw at her flat on January 2003, Carlo proposed to her and she accepted. He also encouraged her to get pregnant, though she was not keen on having a child at that stage of her life. They travelled to Bologna for his birthday in February 2003, but did not meet his family although they were engaged. He did become very intertwined with her family life though, including ringing them / sending cards of his own volition and joining them on a holiday to Whitby in March 2003. They also had various trips to Cornwall with Andy throughout 2002 and 2003.

Normally Andrea organised and paid for any holidays; the only exception to this was a two week trip to France organised for August 2003, which Carlo cancelled the day before, saying his father was ill - this was the only trip which fell through. From Autumn 2003 he was being away much more often than he had been previously, mainly to see his sick father in Italy or his son in Cornwall or so he said, combined with regular work trips.

December 2003, Carlo was meant to spend Christmas with Andrea, but he changed plans at the last minute, saying he was going to Italy as his father was sick. Rang in New Year to say he was staying in Italy a bit longer as his father had very little time left to live.

From January 2004, Andrea described him as becoming 'increasingly volatile', which at the time she put down to his father's death. He started talking about self-harm, and mentioned that he had a previously history of self-harm and suicidal thoughts. In April 2004 he disappeared for a week and was uncontactable for that time. This caused her concern given his previous conversations about self-harm. When he returned he provided her with the account of being jailed for urinating in a police car in Italy.

At the end of April / early May 2004 Andrea received notice on her existing flat and they were supposed to be looking for a place to live together. They kept seeing each other regularly after a gap of several weeks, and he helped her move house several times but they did not live together anymore. By this time he was staying in the Barbican flat. Their relationship continued with him sending her letters, emails, cards and gifts until in November 2004 she received an email saying he no longer wanted contact.

Beth

Originally from Brighton, Beth was a 'special needs' teacher in Stratford and lived in North London. She was also a trumpet player in a ska band and not politically active. She was introduced to Carlo by their mutual friend 'Mike' at a gig she had been playing at. They dated briefly, but shortly afterwards she went to Australia for an extended trip. In the meantime, Neri had started a relationship with Andrea. It was not until after she came back from Australia that they got together, sometime in 2005/2006. As with Andrea, Carlo moved in with her soon after, giving up his other two rooms.

One activist who knew them both wrote at the time in her diary on 17 January 2005, 'Carlo on the other hand has just disappeared from the face of the earth - it must be love.' Though she would meet him several days later, and again at a dinner party in May 2005.

Reflecting on the relationship between Carlo and Beth in hindsight, it was thought it was genuine, and some thought he married her. The most recent investigations seem to confirm that Carlo and Beth indeed marry and have a daughter, although no official documentation has been found yet.

Exit

'Mike', who knew Carlo through the Socialist Party and had allowed him to stay at his house, noted that Neri was away a lot throughout 2006. He was also exhibiting signs of distress, including having a tearful breakdown at a party in 'Mike's flat, after he had been given an Arsenal T-shirt with his name on the back as a birthday present.

After Carlo got together with Beth, he moved in with her, and spoke of his son Robbie coming to live with him. Beth and Carlo moved away in 2006, apparently with the intention of getting married. Contact was soon lost, despite various people leaving messages for him by email and mobile; there were a couple of phone conversations but he did not respond to texts. One interviewee described his disappearance as 'gradual but total', a process starting with the striking up of the relationship with Beth. Cutting everyone off including people who considered him a good friend was considered odd at the time.

Neri got in touch with some friends out of the blue one more time, but after a social gathering at a busy pub in Islington he vanished completely.

The only known contact after this was in August 2007, when 'Mike' encountered Carlo at a wedding of a mutual friend. He appeared to be still with Beth. They arranged to meet up, but Carlo did not respond to attempts to make an appointment.

Contact details

Carlo's mobile was 07951 843 422; it was active until 2014, when people who knew him left messages on it, but it has subsequently been disconnected. He used the emails iamfatherted@yahoo.co.uk and minesaducati@hotmail.com.

Suspicions

Neri disappeared from the North London political scene quite suddenly and hardly left any traces. Until recently, this did not raise many questions, though there were jokes at social events about the 'invisible Carlo', but little more than that. However, as greater understanding of how undercover police emerged, particularly through the Rob Evans and Paul Lewis book, Undercover, it became clear that he fitted the profile. As well as his disappearance, it was clear he had more things in common with other undercovers that had been exposed. For instance, he did not have much of a political past, nobody ever met his family, he had cars conveniently used to transport activists, he tended to disappear for long periods in time, to name a few. Though as such these similarities do not proof anything and can easily be explained away, it was reason enough for some of those who knew him to start asking questions and dig further.

From these conversations, various issues and questions about his activities emerged:

• He had no credit card in his name, and apparently refused to have one; thus when it came to big expenses during their relationship, Andrea would pay rather than him. He would always pay in cash as a result, which he did not seem short of but he was generous in buying gifts and paying when eating out - including in quite expensive restaurants, and the flow always seeming to be there. Andrea mentioned that during the end of his period with her, there was a 'tangible shift in behaviour towards money', but he was 'generally evolving into someone who was more difficult and volatile' at the time. In hindsight, she saw this as making himself 'unlikeable' in order to extract himself and noted that in his final six months on the scene 'his financial generosity kicked in again'.

• In May 2004 when he was helping an activist move house and brought a Transit instead of the requested Luton van. When told, he went away and came back with the Luton van, though he had no obvious way of paying for its hire. He also managed to acquire this Luton between midnight and 7am.

• At several times he made mention of the Red Brigade, which was considered out of place as the politics of the Socialist Party did not support such activities. Others at the time considered it an attempt to impress. It is now thought that this is to similar to undercover officer Peter Francis' hinting at Baader Meinhof connections.

• Though he spoke of his family and seemed to be close to them, spending quite some time away apparently visiting them, nobody ever met them. Although he had proposed to Andrea, he never introduced her to his family. Jay noted that though he talked about his family they 'remained hidden'. When an activist travelled to Bologna for a holiday, Carlo arranged for his father to book them a place to stay and suggest places to visit. Though his father supposedly lived in there, the tips were nothing that would not been in a tourist guide, and his friends never got to meet the father.

• The apparent closeness to his family, and his father specifically, did not seem to correspond with the earlier stories about troubled relationships due to domestic abuse.

• One activist who knew Carlo well, recalled having dinner with Carlo at Carluccio's restaurant in Smithfield in March 2004. He told her that his father, who had recently passed away, had sexually abused Carlo's sister. The activist, who through their work at the time was used to such disclosures, recalled that what Carlo had said had not rung true, coming across as 'clunky' and 'feeling wrong'.

• Around 2005 there were oddities is relationships with individuals. When one person returned to London after several months away, Carlo despite having previously been close to them, made no effort to reconnect with them.

• Despite the Bologna family connection, Neri demonstrated very little knowledge of the prominent fascist Roberto Fiore who was alleged to have been behind the infamous bombing of the train station there. However, there is the incident when he claims one of the alleged bombers being in London - as mentioned above.

• Carlo's son Robbie was a mystery. Lindsey knew of him and saw photographs of him. Andrea too was told of his existence a month into their relationship. There were no pictures of him in Carlo's otherwise complete and organised photograph album. Andrea says the album contained photos tracking his whole life, not many people would have an album so 'meticulously catalogued' and 'orderly'. When he lived with her, Carlo had pictures of his family including his son out on a shelf in their flat. Beth, the partner he disappeared with, is the only one who claimed she actually had met the boy back in the day.

• Piecing together Carlo's chronology, there were inconsistencies in what he told people - in hindsight. Carlo always said he left the UK to go to Italy in 1985 / 1986, at the age of 14 or 15 years old. He claimed he did not come back until around 2000/2001, when he would have been 29 or 30. His reluctance to speak Italian seems odd against having spent 15 odd years in Italy at a formative age. And while talking about his son born in the UK and having the age of three in December 2002,) does not fit with when he supposedly came back to England. (Ofcourse there are always inconsistencies in the timeline that are caused by failing memories of people involved).

• There were hardly any tracks of Carlo in official registers. He is not on the electoral register while living in the Barbican property, which was one of the early points of suspicion. and he then disappears from public records.

Locating and confirming the real Carlo

While putting together the profile of Carlo, as part of the research we conducted a detailed search on public records. It turned out that other than his known activist years, Carlo Neri is a ghost (in the parlance), leaving next to no trace in public records or search engines. An Electoral Roll search found Carlo at known addresses for him in the years 2002-2005. Eliminating others of the same name, it was possible to confirm that there were no further mentions of him in public records before or after he was active in the Socialist Party.

After a number of leads failed to materialise, a break-through was achieved when the name Carlo was found associated with Beth under a different surname, one that was quite distinctive. A search on that name identified a family who shared all the first names that Carlo had used when he talked about his family. On top of that, they owned a North London Italian delicatessen, which fitted the occupational part of his legend. Andrea was then able to confirm definitively that images of the family on social media and websites were the same she had seen in Carlo's photo album.

With the surname now confirmed, it was possible to discover documents from public records that named him as a serving police officer at the time he was infiltrating.

When we added the new information about his family to the timeline, it emerged that his relation with Beth started about 6-8 months after his wife gave birth to their second child. The fact that he registered at Beth's address under his real name was a major slip up that allowed us to trace him. The need for an official address may be explained by Carlo leaving his wife to move away with Beth. This occurred around the same time he was extracting himself from his undercover role.

Due to the highly unusual nature of Carlo's second name, it would immediately lead to the identification of his family which includes teenage children. For this reason alone, and no other, a decision has been taken to not reveal the undercover's real name.

Relationship with other undercovers

Undercover turned whistleblower Peter Francis himself infiltrated the Socialist Party and YRE from 1995 to 1997. He has not - or not yet - revealed anything about other Special Demonstration Squad officers infiltrating the Socialist Party and its previous incarnation, Militant Labour, or its off-shoots such as Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE).

Some of the people in the affinity group of north London anti-fascist activists that Neri attached himself to had known undercover officer Mark Jenner as well, though for most it was not a close connection, as noted above.