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Spycops Inquiry: Special branch kept tabs on journalists
Kate Wilson arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London for her High Court hearing over undercover police relationships in February of this year

by Bethany Rielly

SPECIAL branch kept tabs on journalists seeking to publicise how campaigners exposed a police spy who infiltrated protest groups in the 1970s, a public inquiry heard today. 

Undercover officer Richard Clark spied on the Troops Out Movement (TOM), a campaign calling for British soldiers to be withdrawn from Northern Ireland, and quickly rose through the ranks. For a period of several months he even headed the entire movement.  

Clark, who used the cover name Rick Gibson, later moved on to infiltrate revolutionary group Big Flame, but campaigners grew suspicious of him and launched an extensive investigation into his background. 

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