THE BROTHER and sister of a young man whose identity was stolen by spycops in the 1980s only found out about the theft this year, the undercover policing inquiry revealed today.

Francis Bennett and Honor Robson, who have been designated as core participants in the inquiry, had no idea their brother's identity had been used by the Met’s shadowy Special Demonstration Squad until the inquiry told them on April 27.

Their brother Michael Hartley died in August 1968 aged 18 when he fell overboard a fishing trawler. His identity was then used to infiltrate the Revolutionary Communist Group and Socialist Workers Party between 1982 and 1985.

In January, the inquiry revealed that spycop HN12 was arrested, prosecuted and fined for “a minor offence” while undercover and had “a fleeting sexual encounter with a female activist.”

But inquiry chair John Mitting decided that an “intermittent condition” he suffered from could be “triggered or exacerbated by publication of his real name” and worried about the affect on his wife if his real name came out.

HN12 died in March and was revealed as Hartley in May, but his real identity remains a secret.

The spycops inquiry also published the cover name of the now deceased Barry/Desmond Loader who spied on the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) between 1975 and 1978.

In January, Mr Mitting said he was minded to conceal Loader’s real name as his widow claimed that “he was assured of lifelong confidentiality and would not have become an undercover police officer otherwise.”