Met Police Agent Provocateurs

[Magda Hassan]

Undercover police: Officer B identified as Mark Jacobs

Mark Jacobs, not thought to be his real name, infiltrated anarchist groups and had an affair with at least one woman

• Rajeev Syal
  
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 January 2011 21.30 GMT Officer B claimed to be a landscape gardener and long-distance lorry driver named Mark Jacobs. Photograph: Guardian The undercover police spy previously identified as Officer B was known to fellow activists as Mark Jacobs, a campaigner inside anti-globalisation and anarchist groups for four years, who had an affair with at least one woman.
  Jacobs, not thought to be his real name, claimed to be a 44-year-old landscape gardener and long-distance lorry driver. Former friends say he adopted a northern club comedian persona, complete with catchphrases and knowing winks. Occasionally, he would joke that he might actually be a policeman.
  He was first noticed in activists' gatherings in Brighton in March 2005 and became a regular face at meetings of Dissent!, the network mobilising protesters for the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July. At 6ft and 15 stone, he stood out from the crowd.
  One former friend said Jacobs made friends easily and remembered him for his sayings used to deflect questions or ease tensions. "Dear diary ..." he'd say when discussing the day's events or upcoming projects, or "And relax ..." at the end of stressful conversations.
  When others smoked cannabis he would refuse, repeating another favourite phrase: "Strong European lager is my drug of choice." Those close to him said he would drink heavily at most social occasions.
  In 2006, he moved to Cardiff where he monitored the activities of an anarchist group as well as the Rising Tide Network. Former friends said he travelled with UK activists to protest against the G8 in Heligendam, Germany, in 2007.
  Jacobs, like both the other male undercover officers exposed by the Guardian, has been accused of having an affair while infiltrating a group. A 29-year-old former girlfriend told the Guardian last week that she had an affair with Jacobs for three months in the summer of 2008.
  "I was doing nothing wrong. I was not breaking the law at all. For him to come along and lie to us and get that deep into our lives was a colossal, colossal betrayal," the woman said. "I am incredibly angry. Obviously to do that to anybody is pretty low, but to do that to somebody who trusted you and cared about you is just unspeakable."
  By 2009, friends had become suspicious of Jacobs and he was increasingly being left out of sensitive discussions. He left claiming he had got a job in Corfu as a gardener. His former friends never heard from him again.