UK police spy Mark Kennedy now working in the US
A former Scotland Yard police officer whose eight years undercover with eco-warriors led to the collapse of a criminal trial is working for a US company that targets anti-capitalist demonstrators, the Standard can reveal. Mark Kennedy is a consultant for the Densus Group, a Dallas-based firm run by a former British Army officer that once gathered intelligence on protesters at a G20 summit.
UK police spy Mark Kennedy now working in the US
A former Scotland Yard police officer whose eight years undercover with eco-warriors led to the collapse of a criminal trial is working for a US company that targets anti-capitalist demonstrators, the Standard can reveal.
Mark Kennedy is a consultant for the Densus Group, a Dallas-based firm run by a former British Army officer that once gathered intelligence on protesters at a G20 summit.
Working from his new home in Cleveland, Ohio, the 42-year-old provides “risk and threat assessments” to companies that suspect they might fall victim to “direct action”.
This is the first indication of Mr Kennedy’s new job since his extraordinary work as an undercover Met officer halted the trial of six environmental activists accused of trying to shut down the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire in 2009.
The policeman made covert recordings that proved the campaigners were innocent, but “collective failings” by the Met and the Crown Prosecution Service meant that they were not shared with defence lawyers.
The embarrassing case triggered a national review of undercover policing, while Mr Kennedy fled to America.
He was later criticised when it emerged that he had had sexual relationships with two of the activists.
In a job description published online, Mr Kennedy said: “My experience is drawn from 20 years as a British police officer, the last 10 of which were deployed as a covert operative working within extreme left political and animal rights groups throughout the UK, Europe and the US providing exacting intelligence upon which risk and
threat assessment analysis could be made.”
Sam Rosenfeld, the chairman of Densus Group and a former British Army officer who toured Northern Ireland, said: “Mr Kennedy’s history is unparalleled in being able to share his experiences of legal and illegal protest techniques — perspectives critical in understanding where the real risks, threats and opportunities lie. Mr Kennedy’s involvement promotes the facilitation and effectiveness of legal protest and forewarns the likely victims of violence and criminal damage.”
Mr Kennedy was recruited in 2002 by the Met’s National Public Order Intelligence Unit. During his work undercover, he travelled 40 times to 11 countries in the guise of a long-haired drop-out.
His former friends in the world of environmental activism recently published photographs of him from 2010, wearing women’s clothes.
