LONDON - British anti-apartheid campaigners say undercover police officers who infiltrated their movement in the 1970s were on the wrong side of history.
Earlier this year, three campaigners had their historical convictions quashed after revelations the police acted wrongfully.
Half a century ago, Jonathan Rosenhead was arrested.
An anti-apartheid campaigner, he had been protesting to stop Britain’s rugby team from travelling to South Africa.
He said, “we surrounded the bus and sat on the ground. We’d also brought a couple of cars, which helped to block the way out. And we’d ordered a skip, the skip got delivered at exactly the right time, a big lorry with a skip was manoeuvring while the coach was trying to get out. So it was a bit of a peaceful fracas."
14 people were arrested for obstruction but the incident turned out to be part of something much bigger.
It was one of the early examples of what would later be revealed as widespread undercover policing in left-wing groups.
In Rosenhead’s case, it was more than just surveillance.
He recalled, “one of the 14 or 15 who were convicted was an undercover policeman. And he had been charged, prosecuted and convicted under his fake name. And not only that, as one of the defendants, he had sat with us as we talked with our lawyer about what our defence was.”
Rosenhead calls that an abuse of process.
He only learned about the undercover officer in 2021, once an inquiry was under way.
So he and two of his fellow protesters appealed their decades-old convictions.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission argued that the officer breached confidentiality between lawyers and defendants.
Prosecutors originally said there had been no miscarriage of justice - but ultimately, they didn’t challenge the appeal and the court overturned it.
Former anti-apartheid campaigners say the case unveiled how far the regime had extended its influence.
Labour peer Lord Peter Hain said, "the police working hand in hand with South African apartheid agents, based here in London, and this is what is so unacceptable about it, were actually in my front living room, posing as one of the activists, following me around, being at every meeting I was attending."
"We knew that the apartheid security services were working hand in glove with the British intelligence services and with the police here. But the extent of that is quite revealing.”
London's police force says it is assisting the inquiry into undercover operations, which is still ongoing.
The officer in question has given evidence, but his real identity remains a secret.
But for three anti-apartheid campaigners, arrested in this car park in 1972, there has been some justice.
When they receive their compensation, they’re planning a dinner at the hotel where the story began.