Undercover police report delayed

19 October 2011 Last updated at 19:21 ET

Det Con Jim Boyling operated undercover using the alias Jim Sutton

A report into undercover policing, and the conduct of an officer who infiltrated an environmental group, has been postponed after allegations about a Metropolitan Police officer.

The fresh allegations suggest Det Con Jim Boyling took part in a criminal trial under an alias, calling into question the safety of a conviction.

A solicitor told the BBC his firm had unwittingly defended Det Con Boyling.

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said it wanted to consider any new information.

“In light of the allegations in the media today, we are delaying the launch of our report,” it said in a statement.

“This is so we can consider the relevance of this information to the recommendations for improvement in undercover policing tactics that we are making in our review.”

Det Con Boyling worked in specialist operations at the Metropolitan Police and was engaged in covert surveillance of the Reclaim The Streets environmental group when he was arrested and charged with other activists at a demonstration in London in August 1996.

He is said to have attended sensitive legal meetings and the final trial under his alias.

One of the other activists was convicted of public order offences at the 1997 trial, but the undercover officer was found not guilty.

Mike Schwarz, of law firm Bindmans, told the BBC’s Newsnight: “It’s institutionalised police corruption of the legal process for this to happen.”

He said the case “raises the most fundamental constitutional issues about the limits of acceptable policing, the sanctity of lawyer-client confidentiality and the integrity of the criminal justice system.”

The Metropolitan Police (MPS) said it had been “reviewing issues regarding the deployment of undercover officers and the policy and practices in place at the time” of these claims.

“The MPS acknowledges that these are serious matters and is continuing to review the situation, and will take account of any additional information that becomes available.

“We are confident that the current legislative and regulatory framework governing the deployment of undercover officers ensures that all such deployments conducted now are lawful and appropriately managed.”

The fresh allegations emerged following a review of records at Bindmans prompted by the case of another undercover officer, Mark Kennedy, who spent seven years infiltrating a group of climate activists.

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.