Peter Francis: the changing faces of an undercover police spy - in pictures

Peter Francis when he graduated from the Metropolitan police training school in Hendon in May 1986 Photograph: Guardian

Francis came top of his class at the training school. When he graduated in May 1986, he received his award from Hugh Annesley, then a senior officer in charge of training Photograph: Guardian

By January 1993, Francis had been recruited to the special demonstration squad, a covert unit within Special Branch. He began to develop an alter ego, assuming - like the other members of the unit - the identity of a boy who had died young Photograph: Guardian

In September 1993, Francis started his covert deployment infiltrating anti-racist groups. His superiors wanted him to collect intelligence about the family of Stephen Lawrence, who had been murdered by a racist gang a few months earlier Photograph: Guardian

This photograph was taken by Special Branch when they were carrying out surveillance of political activists attending a conference in Red Lion Square, central London in the mid-1990s. Francis (centre with cap) is leaving Conway Hall with the other activists, mid-way through his undercover deployment Photograph: Guardian

In September 1997, Francis completed his undercover mission and was reassigned to other duties within Special Branch. That summer, he says, he argued that his undercover work should be disclosed to the public inquiry headed by Sir William Macpherson into the police failures to find the killers of Stephen Lawrence, but was overruled. Photograph: Guardian

After his undercover deployment ended in September 1997, Francis's appearance began to change. By March 1998, he had grown a beard and cut off the pony-tail he had sported while pretending to be an anti-racist activist Photograph: Guardian

Francis photographed in May 2013, after he decided to reveal his true identity and call openly for a public inquiry into the work of his former unit, the special demonstration squad. He had previously spoken out as Pete Black, one of the aliases he used while he was undercover Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian