Police spies stole the identities of 80 dead babies: Birth certificates were used for fake identities

• Details were taken so officers could infiltrate protest groups
  
• They modeled the process on the film, The Day of the Jackal
• Scotland Yard says practice no longer employed but launches investigation

By ARTHUR MARTIN

PUBLISHED: 23:06 GMT, 3 February 2013 | UPDATED: 23:06 GMT, 3 February 2013

The identities of 80 dead children were stolen by the police and used to create fake passports, it was revealed last night.

The names and dates of birth were taken without the knowledge of the children’s parents and used by officers infiltrating protest groups.

For 30 years, detectives from Scotland Yard trawled through national birth and death records looking for suitable identities. They used the birth certificates to apply for a variety of identity documents to make their aliases appear genuine.

In some cases officers spent up to ten years in the same guise. One, John Dines, adopted the identity of an eight-year-old boy called John Barker, who died in 1968 from leukaemia.



Another officer said he felt he was ‘stomping on the grave’ of the four-year-old boy whose identity he used while working undercover in anti-racist groups.

And a third detective spent years living under the identity of a child who died in a car crash.

The technique of using dead children as aliases was borrowed from Frederick  Forsyth’s novel, The Day of the Jackal. Last night Keith Vaz MP, the chairman  of the home affairs select committee, said he was shocked by the ‘gruesome’ practice.

‘It will only cause enormous distress to families who will discover what has happened concerning the identities of their dead children,’ he said. ‘This is absolutely shocking. My disbelief at some of the tactics used has become shock as a result of these latest revelations.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2272978/Police-spies-stole-...