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.