ITN client Lowri Davies has complained to South Wales Police after covert officers attempted to recruit her as an informant.
Ms Davies, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Swansea, was approached earlier this year by covert officers who asked her to pass them information about anti-social behaviour at protests. She believes that this was an attempt to gather intelligence about the Swansea and Cardiff branches of the Black Lives Matter movement and their members.
Ms Davies was extremely frightened and distressed by the incident, which has caused her ongoing anxiety regarding possible police surveillance of her legitimate protest activities. It is of concern that the police would seek to recruit an informant from an organisation seeking to highlight unjust policing.
On 18 October 2021, ITN submitted a complaint to South Wales Police on Ms Davies’ behalf. The complaint argued that covert officers had no lawful basis for attempting to recruit her as an informant, and in doing so had interfered with her human rights to private life, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association.
Ms Davies-Warwick is represented by Lochlinn Parker and Helen Bates of ITN Solicitors. Her experience is covered in a Guardian article by journalist Rob Evans. She has also taken part in an episode of the Guardian's Today in Focus podcast, which discusses the undercover policing of activists.
ITN’s Civil Liberties and Human Rights department undertakes a wide variety of work on the right to protest. If you have an issue you would like to discuss, please feel free to get in touch.