Mike Chitty (HN11) is a character whose shadow looms over much of what we have come to know about the SDS, but someone who has also proved elusive. He assumed the identity ‘Mike Blake’ and from 1983 until 1987 he spied on animal rights activists in South London.

Chitty was the first SDS #spycop deployed into the animal rights field. As anti-fur, anti-hunting and anti-animal experimentation protests had taken hold, so the businesses affected leaned on the government, which in turn leaned on the police, looking for solutions.

The Met turned to the Branch, who turned to SDS. They decided to deploy an undercover officer into above-ground groups, and tasked him with identifying who the real players were - who was planning the lab raids, organising pickets, running the networks. They sent in Chitty.

Chitty came to SDS via a circuitous route. As a young man at the end of the 60s he had joined Kent Constabulary, but after a few years of walking the beat in the Garden of England, he got bored and hungered for change. He moved to Bermuda to sign up to the local police.

He clearly enjoyed it there. He soon got married, his wife had a son, and within a couple of years Chitty had joined the small but prestigious Special Branch. He even represented Bermuda Police in shooting competitions.

But Britain was calling, and in 1978 he moved his family back to the UK & joined the Met. He was in Borough policing until transferred to Special Branch in 1982. From there he was quickly tapped as a suitable candidate for the animal rights spy role that SDS needed to fill.

Chitty based himself at a bedsit in Balham, claimed to be some kind of handyman or mechanic, and drove around in an estate car. He started attending meetings of South London Animal Movement, both those of the Streatham branch closer to his cover flat, and the Catford branch.

Whilst he handed out leaflets, turned up at demos, and even gave lifts to activists, Chitty did not dig too deeply in the scene into which he had been deployed. Indeed he seemed to spend more time and effort socialising than getting involved in political activities.

He befriended a key activist who became part of RATS, a group which had split away from SLAM to focus on fundraising for the ALF Supporters Group. Whilst Chitty did not join RATS, it is believed he may have passed on intelligence which led to four members being raided.

Meanwhile Chitty was putting considerably more effort into pursuing female activists. His first known relationship was with a SLAM activist in 1984-5. After breaking up with her he initiated a relationship with a second woman, which lasted towards the end of his deployment.

In May 1987 Chitty left his deployment. It was a fairly straightforward exfiltration - he had been telling the people he had been spying on that he was going to move to America to start a business. No one seemed to have batted an eyelid.

Rotated back into mainstream Special Branch, Chitty put in stints in a number of teams, including S Squad, a stint in Putney attached to SO11, E Squad, and then armed protection duties in A Squad. But it all came crashing down for him.

Sometime in Summer 1989 he reappeared in the lives of the animal rights friends he had left behind. He told them his American venture hadn’t panned out. They accepted this, and he quickly settled back into the social life he clearly missed (though only outside work hours).

Of course it was all very much not authorised, approved or even known about by his Branch bosses, at least not at first. He felt safe enough that he attempted to rekindle his relationship with the woman he left behind in 1987 - apparently to the point of proposing to her.

Though he had returned all the ID he had been issued with under his fake identity, he eventually procured a fresh driving licence and passport in the name of ‘Mike Blake’, and organised a new cover address.

His posting in Putney helped, placing him much closer to his friends, and away from the prying eyes of his managers. But when his transfer to A Squad - involving close protection for principals who might travel all over the country - things got complicated.

He began to slip away at the end of his shifts, change clothes and drive back to South London, no matter where in the country he was. Before long notice was taken of his exceptional vehicle mileage and excessive fuel expenses.

In 1992 he was confronted with evidence around his expenses and there was an altercation with his manager, which led to the extraordinary step of his firearm being confiscated whilst an investigation into him was launched.

At this point it gets Shakespearean. Whilst Chitty was the first #spycop deployed into animal rights circles, his tour was largely uneventful (bar perhaps any contribution to the RATS raids). His mission was entirely overshadowed by the man who followed him: Bob Lambert.

It was Lambert’s foray into in the field that entered into SDS legend, ending on the high - by Lambert’s account - of a dangerous ALF cell being smashed. And it was to Lambert that the Special Branch bosses turned when they wanted to figure out what Chitty had been up to.

Lambert was tasked with rebuilding rapport with Chitty, building on their time together in SDS, and utilising his skills as a consummate befriender, liar & betrayer. This Lambert did with aplomb, for nearly 2 years, meeting with him regularly, ostensibly for social reasons.

The clandestine investigation continued (Lambert somehow even gained access to Chitty’s personal papers) as did Chitty’s off-the-books activities. He carried on socialising with his old targets, and persisted in trying to reestablish his relationship with his ex-girlfriend.

In early 1994 Chitty was called into a disciplinary hearing, but before it took place he went AWOL, heading off to meet another disaffected ex-SDS officer in Scotland. In March he disappeared after crashed his car in Worthing in concerning circumstances.

Due to the worry he had some kind of breakdown and walked into the sea for reasons of suicide, a search-and-rescue operation was put in place. He was found, and his good mate Bob Lambert spoke to him after at the local police station.

By now things were unravelling fast. His association with animal rights people was becoming known, as ‘Mike Blake’ kept cropping up in intelligence reports on his friends - because *of course& they were under surveillance.

Chitty sent a letter to the Met Commissioner, complaining about his treatment by SDS and the psychological pressure he’d been put under, and threatening to go public. The Branch bosses were not happy, not least because of the risk to exposing that the #spycops even existed.

After further rubberheeling (even dragging in fellow ex-#spycop ‘Kevin Douglas’ HN25 to help) in May Lambert filed his secret report. Chitty’s extracurricular activities were uncovered. It was scathing about Chitty, his tradecraft, SDS record and post-deployment behaviour.

Lambert, always the self-promoter, even found space to negatively compare Chitty’s time in the trenches of non-violent political campaigning with his own much-lauded tour. Every crisis an opportunity for Bob!

Despite being found out, because of his knowledge about SDS - all the dirty laundry, the skeletons in the closet and where the bodies were buried - Chitty was able to negotiate his way out of the Met, leveraged by legal action in pursuit of a personal injury payout.

He was awarded an ill-health pension, dropped his lawsuit, and moved to South Africa. And there things would have remained, all the Met’s grotty secrets hidden away… But for the double-whammy of Mark Kennedy & Peter Francis. In the 2010s the veil of secrecy began to slip.

Whilst Chitty wasn't himself given Core Participant status at @ucpinquiry, the activist whom he pursued for a relationship either side of his official exfiltration was.

Chitty now splits his time between South Africa and the UK, summering on the south coast aboard a boat.

/END

#spycops