Pitchford Inquiry preliminary hearing: Dead children’s identities

Lord Justice Pitchford

Stealing the identity of a dead child was mandatory for Special Demonstration Squad officers for around 20 years. From the mid 1970s onwards, it was the foundation of the fake identity, and about fifty officers are understood to have done it.

In 1999, one of first (if not the very first) officers in the National Public Order Intelligence Unit also did it, stealing the identity of Rod Richardson.

The Home Affairs Select Committee report on undercover policing insisted that affected parents were informed. The Met refused.

This preliminary hearing of the Pitchford Inquiry will consider:

(i) whether the state has a duty to disclose to the parents of a deceased child that the identity of that child was stolen for police purposes, and

(ii) if there is a public interest test to be applied what does it comprise and how is it to be measured.

Copies of the key documents from families’ lawyers, the police and the Inquiry can be found here.

The hearing will be held in Court 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice.