Undercover police officer fabricated gun plot by animal rights activists, inquiry told

Spycops inquiry hears James Thomson lied to superiors and deceived two women into relationships

Managers of an undercover police officer believed he had concocted a plot in which animal rights activists purportedly sought to obtain a gun to inflict a revenge attack on a political opponent, the spycops public inquiry has heard.

The officer, James Thomson, claimed he had uncovered the plot while he infiltrated animal rights groups. But his managers later came to doubt whether it was genuine, with one of them appearing to call it bollocks".