Bob Lambert denies planning Romford and Harrow bomb attacks

The Undercover Policing Inquiry heard on Friday (December 6) that six people have implicated former Metropolitan Police detective Bob Lambert in the 1987 bombing of Debenhams stores in Romford, Harrow and Luton.

One recounted Lambert telling her the incendiary devices were hidden in matchboxes.

“The devices were in fact placed inside a large box of matches, weren’t they?” asked barrister David Barr KC, lead counsel to the inquiry.

“Yes, I believe so,” Lambert conceded.

He accepted the evidence was “potentially quite damning”, but suggested the witness may have got the detail from someone else involved in the plot, to frame him.

Debenhams was targeted by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which Lambert had been sent to spy on by the Met’s Special Demonstrations Squad, to punish the chain for selling fur.

Police reported at the time that the attacks caused more than £9million worth of damage.

Witnesses claim Lambert was a “leader”, planning the bombings and personally planting the Harrow device, which caused the worst damage.

They include one man prosecuted over the bomb plot, another who evaded prosecution but now admits involvement, and two women Lambert had sexual relationships with while undercover.

Bob Lambert spent four-and-a-half years undercover for the Met Police, spying on animal rights groups in Islington, Haringey, Hackney and east London. He is seen here in his undercover role at a protest outside Mayfair's Dorchester Hotel (Image: Published by the Undercover Policing Inquiry) But Lambert forcefully denied involvement when questioned on Friday, saying all his accusers were lying, perhaps for “simple revenge” because he “deceived them”.

“All telling lies on oath or affirmation to a public inquiry in order to exact revenge?” asked Mr Barr.

“And for the benefit of the movement that many of them come from, to portray me as an agent provocateur,” Lambert said.

Belinda Harvey – in a relationship with Lambert at the time, believing him to be a gardener called Bob Robinson – claims Lambert told her of his involvement before the attacks happened.

“I asked him how he could contemplate such a thing that might kill somebody,” she wrote in a statement.

“He reassured me that the action would not hurt anyone. The purpose was to create smoke to set off the sprinklers so that all the fur coats would be damaged.

“He told me not to tell anyone. He said [the others] would be fuming if they knew he had told me… I said to him that I did not want him to do it. He said that he was in ‘too deep’.”

The inquiry heard Mrs Harvey was not an animal rights activist but a trainee accountant from Hackney, who Lambert met at a party during his undercover mission.

She said she initially dismissed his claims.

“I did not take it seriously, to be honest… I just thought it was bravado,” she wrote.

But she testified that, after the attacks: “He told me that he had put the device down the back or side of a sofa. He made it clear to me that he had planted an incendiary device.”

Simon Turmaine, a friend of Mrs Harvey, said Lambert spoke to him about wanting to “carry on” with more attacks.

“The whole context of the conversation was that he had done these things and that he would go to jail big time if he was caught,” his statement said.

Bob Lambert suggested witnesses might be lying about him being involved in the bomb plot for 'simple revenge' after he 'deceived them' (Image: Undercover Policing Inquiry YouTube Page)

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Mr Barr put it to Lambert that he had told another woman – who he had a baby with while undercover – about the planned attacks. He denied it.

He also put it to Lambert that he had invited another female activist to join the bomb plot but she declined. Lambert said that too was a lie.

Geoff Sheppard, involved in the bombing, testified Lambert had been “pushing the plans forward” and was “a leader rather than a follower”.

He said that after visiting the Romford store and discovering it did not sell fur, he asked whether they should abandon it, but Lambert convinced him to carry on and that it was still “a legitimate target”.

Asked by Mr Barr whether the Met Police had allowed him to participate in the bombings to help him bolster his cover, Lambert replied: “Certainly not, because I didn’t.”

The inquiry continues.