I need £10k to prove police spied on me
INVESTIGATION LAWYERS URGE INQUIRY Protester’s outrage as legal aid is refused
A WOMAN claiming to be the victim of undercover police abuse must raise £10,000 after her Scottish legal aid application was rejected.
Tilly Gifford’s lawyers, who are acting free of charge, suggested the decision to turn down support has the “dead hand of Government” all over it.
They have now set up a crowdfunding page to raise the money to challenge the UK and Scottish Governments over their refusal to hold a public inquiry into undercover police activity in Scotland.
Tilly, 32, from Glasgow, came to the attention of police after occupying a taxiway at Aberdeen airport in March 2009 as part of expansion protest group Plane Stupid.
She was allegedly approached by officers from Strathclyde Police who wanted to recruit her as a spy.
She also came into contact with Mark Kennedy, a covert cop working for the Met The crowdfunding page can be found at www.crowdjustice. org/case/under cover-policingscotland Police Special Demonstration Squad and National Police Order Intelligence Unit. Using the alias Mark Stone, he infiltrated protest groups and tricked a woman into a long-term relationship. Tilly said: “I was spied upon. If these activities were sanctioned by Scottish police authorities and the Metropolitan Police, there needs to be accountability.”
Theresa May ordered her Pitchford Inquiry to cover England and Wales.
In Scotland, campaigners felt let down by SNP Justice Secretary Michael Matheson’s decision last year to announce a far more limited “review” of policing.
Tilly’s solicitor Paul Heron, of the Public Interest Law Unit in London, said: “We call on either the Home Office to extend the inquiry to Scotland or the Scottish Government to set up their own inquiry.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Legal Aid Board said: “To grant legal aid, it must be considered reasonable that an applicant should have their legal fees paid from public funds based on the particular circumstances of their case.”