Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
‘I found out my best mate's a spycop’
Animal rights activist Daryl Dixon speaks to the Star after discovering his friend in the 1980s was an undercover copper
Daryl Dixon (left), an animal rights activist who was spied on by police officer ‘John Lipscomb’ in the 1980s

AN ANIMAL rights activist has spoken out about his shock at recently discovering his best mate in the 1980s was actually a police spy. 

The officer, known only by his cover name John Lipscomb, infiltrated several south London-based animal rights groups during the 1980s and ’90s, including Bromley Animal Rights, where he met Daryl Dixon, then aged 23, in 1987. 

Mr Dixon, a lifelong animal rights activist from Kent, quickly formed a close friendship with Lipscomb, bonding over a shared passion for the cause. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
INTO THE ARCHIVES: (Left) an newspaper clipping about Peach
Features / 25 March 2025
25 March 2025
The murder of an anti-racist protester in 1979 by a special unit of the Met Police was followed by a gruelling battle to win answers about what happened on that tragic day. Now material related to that campaign is available to the public and researchers for the first time at the Bishopsgate Institute. INDIANNA PURCELL reports
Britain / 6 December 2024
6 December 2024