Tragic death of Occupy LSX anti-MI5 Anarchist campaigner Tom Palmer 21Aug18, w punk rapper Mada Ldn

I first met Tom on the Steps of St Pauls. One early morning during the occupations we sat on the steps and we talked of change I don’t think Tom had been to sleep. I have chosen to write a Eulogy and not an obituary for Tom because it is about celebrating his life yet I know Tom’s life was not always a celebration. Tom is well known to the protest scene and wasn’t always a welcome participant as his illness increasingly interfered with his reality. But Tom is exactly the reason we sat on those steps he was a young adult that needed support, his family needed support. This was something that wasn’t being offered in this time of banking crisis and cuts to Mental Health services and the National Health. His mental health deteriorated in front of us. It had got to the stage that the only time he got to see the services he needed was through contact with the police and the courts. None of us were qualified to deal with the situations that Tom presented us with. But that was part and parcel of Tom, on the other hand Tom was super intelligent and for all his extreme paranoia was astute with his observations of the state. He set up his Anarchesque Boilerplate an alternative news outlet and his writings where insightful and progressive. He was a musician and many a night was serenaded by Tom on his guitar and his lyrics were sharp, current and funny. His poetry and narrative of life was sometime bordering on genius.

https://theaccidentalacnarchist.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/a-eulogy-to-tom-palmer/

Occupy activist Tom Palmer feared police protest spies before sudden drug death, inquest hears

https://politicsthisweek.gn.apc.org/2025/10/not-the-bcfm-politics-show-presented-by-tony-gosling-261/

Friends said campaigner known as Kingfisher 'hated the injustice in the world'

Friday, 3rd February 2017 — By William McLennan

https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/occupy-activist-tom-palmer-feared-police-protest-spies-before-sudden-drug-death-inquest-hears

THE mother of a prolific activist told an inquest into her son’s death from a drug overdose that his paranoia over state surveillance was “exacerbated and heightened” by undercover police officers who infiltrated protests.

Tom Palmer, 28, who was a “leading light” in the Occupy movement and had been living in a camp near Camden Lock, had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, with doctors concerned about his fixation on MI5 and police spies, Poplar Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday. But Mr Palmer did not believe he was unwell and his mother, Judith, told the court that the well-documented deployment of police spies, posing as fellow activists, had “hindered his recovery”.

“During the Occupy Movement which began in 2011 Tom undoubtedly came into contact with plain-clothed and undercover officers,” she said.

“From that time he was heavily involved in activism in London and talked about many other such encounters. And although his perceptions of reality were often blurred and unfocused, his paranoia was exacerbated and heightened because it was based on a truth that has been very well documented.

“His recovery was hindered because there were many reminders in the press that such things do happen, and not all of his suspicions were delusional.”

Mr Palmer, sometimes known as “Kingfisher”, split his time between his parents’ home in Staffordshire and living with friends and in squats in London, the court heard. He had been a part of some of the most high-profile protests in recent years, taking a key role in the takeovers by the Occupy London movement at St Paul’s Cathedral and Finsbury Square. The public gallery was packed with around 20 friends and fellow activists.

Ms Palmer told the court that her son had refused to take anti-psychotic medication prescribed by doctors, adding: “I think he tried to self-medicate with drinking and some drugs.”

In the weeks before his death he had been campaigning against Wetherspoon’s plans to expand the Ice Wharf pub’s beer garden on public land next to the canal in Camden Town.

The coroner heard concerns about the care Mr Palmer received from mental health services and problems exchanging information between different trusts.

Mr Palmer had been awaiting trial for criminal damage after urinating on Thames House, the headquarters of MI5 in Millbank on July 4.

His mother said: “There was an incident at the MI5 building. Tom very deliberately got himself arrested for that because he wanted his day in court, so he could come to court with all the evidence he had.”

She said he had at times been fearful of the security services, adding: “He said to me ‘mum, if I die you will investigate my death, won’t you?’”

The court heard that Mr Palmer had been smoking crack-cocaine and snorting lines of heroin at a friend’s house in Hoxton on the night before he died last August.

Daniel Phythian, who was with him, said: “I just got the impression that he wasn’t really used to these drugs.”