Undercover officer alleged to have planted fire bomb in Debenhams store

AN UNDERCOVER police officer left a fire bomb in a department store as part of his efforts to infiltrate a group of animal rights campaigners, an MP has claimed.

AN UNDERCOVER police officer left a fire bomb in a department store as part of his efforts to infiltrate a group of animal rights campaigners, an MP has claimed.

• Firebomb was left in Harrow branch of Debenhams to protest sale of fur products

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• 1987 incident saw two activists jailed but a third was never caught

• Caroline Lucas claimed undercover police officer had admitted involvement in Animal Liberation Front activities

Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, said she had seen a witness statement alleging an undercover officer called Bob Lambert, under the alias Bob Robinson, planted the device in Debenhams store in Harrow as he tried to prove his worth to the Animal Liberation Front.

The device was one of three that left at the chain of stores in protest at its decision to sell fur products. Two activists, Geoff Sheppard and Andrew Clarke, were jailed for planting the devices in the Luton and Romford stores following the attacks.

The third activist involved in the attacks was never caught and it is alleged by Sheppard that it was Bob Lambert, Ms Lucas said in Westminster Hall yesterday.

She said Sheppard had only discovered Lambert was undercover following the exposure of Mark Kennedy as a police officer who had infiltrated a group of environmental activists about to go on trial for attempting to take control of a power station. As a result, the cover of nine other undercover officers, including Bob Lambert, was blown.

Ms Lucas said Lambert had already admitted he was involved in a covert operation that led to imprisonment of Sheppard and Clarke. But she said Sheppard alleges that it was Lambert who planted the third device.

Ms Lucas said: “The latest allegations concerning Bob Lambert and the planting of incendiary devices would beg the question has another undercover police officer crossed the line into acting as an agent provocateur?”

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