AN undercover police officer who infiltrated a group of Notts climate change protesters says he felt "torn apart" by his clandestine work.
Mark Kennedy, who was employed by the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, spent seven years undercover using the name Mark Stone.
His role came to light in January after the collapse of a trial against six protesters alleged to have planned to trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station and shut it down.
In a radio interview yesterday, he said he was "still processing" the emotional impact of his secret double life.
He said: "I was in a position that was extremely rare, where I was on the fence and saw both sides.
"I was understanding of the issues people wanted to protest about and I also understood my role as an undercover police officer, although I may have questioned that on some occasions."
His information led to a raid at Iona School, Sneinton, on Easter Monday, 2009, and the arrest of 114 people in connection with the alleged plot.
The trial of six of the protesters in January this year was abandoned by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Mr Kennedy then told journalists he had made tape recordings which cast doubt over whether the activists should have been charged.
He alleged Notts Police had kept those recordings secret, though last week the force said it "completely refuted" suggestions evidence was kept from the CPS.
The announcement came after the director of public prosecutions invited a further 20 protesters already convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass at the power station to appeal against their sentences.
Mr Kennedy said the campaigners had grown to mean "a great deal" to him.
"I was torn apart by it," he said.
"I spent seven years with a close knit group of people, many of whom became very good friends."
But he denied he had ever "gone native". He said: "I did what I was asked to do. If the intelligence that was provided wasn't used to best effect then something's gone wrong."
Mr Kennedy added there should be more consideration of how officers in his situation could be affected and said in hindsight maybe he should have left the operation earlier.
Three reviews into the collapse of the trial and the use of undercover police are still taking place.
Assistant Chief Constable of Notts Paul Broadbent said: "The interview with Mark Kennedy has not given any further insight into the reasons behind his actions.
"He was obviously reluctant to answer questions about the relationships he developed within the group and neither did he explain in any way how closing down the power station would have had any benefit to those two-million people whose homes could have been affected by the loss of power had the force not taken the pre-emptive action it did."
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