(H)N406 Barry McDowell was a Special Branch officer who moved from SO12 to the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force (CO24) when it was set up by Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve in 1998-1999.
He was mentioned as N406 in Operation Herne, and by name in the Ellison Review - Possible corruption and the role of undercover policing in the Stephen Lawrence case (Vol.1).
Barry McDowell was part of the investigation into the alleged flow of intelligence between the SDS and the team that prepared the MPS response to the Macpherson report.
At the time, Special Branch Commander Colin Black wrote in a memo that he had established a secure communication route from the SDS to Grieve at CO24, via N406 Barry McDowell. However, those involved remembered different versions of what happened, and whether the secret channel even existed.
Full profile to follow.