Prosecutors in the United Kingdom have given up on a criminal case against environmental activists after an undercover police officer responsible for gathering incriminating evidence exposed his identity and expressed regret for his actions.

 

British law enforcement officer Mark Kennedy spent seven years spying on dozens of environmental organizations, and even helped organize and fund protests to prove his loyalty to those being investigated. Kennedy’s work resulted in twenty-six activists being indicted for conspiring to break into the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power plant in April 2009. Twenty of them were convicted on January 5, although the judge, Jonathan Teare, gave them light sentences that did not include jail time because he considered them “decent men and women with a genuine concern for others, and in particular for the survival of planet Earth in something resembling its present form.”

 

The other six accused were to be tried separately because they contended that they had not agreed to break into the power plant.

 

Following Kennedy’s public confession and resignation from the force, prosecutors dropped the charges against the second group.

 

He is believed to have been one of at least two undercover officers working for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, which spies on those suspected of being domestic extremists.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Undercover Officer Spied on Green Activists (by Rob Evans and Paul Lewis, The Guardian)

Trial Collapses after Undercover Officer Changes Sides (by Meirion Jones, BBC News)

Ratcliffe Coal Protesters Spared Jail Sentences (by Paul Lewis and Nidhi Prakash, The Guardian)