--- category: Organizations created: 2026-05-22 location: London, United Kingdom start: 1962 summary: Searchlight is a British anti-fascist investigative magazine founded in 1962 that ran informants inside Combat 18 and the British neo-Nazi movement throughout the 1990s, published the first identification of David Myatt as Anton Long in April 1998, and worked with BBC Panorama to document David Copeland's links to the National Socialist Movement. tags: - Organization - UK - Journalism - AntiFascist - Investigative - NeoNazi - SpecialBranch updated: 2026-05-22 --- [Searchlight Magazine](/organizations/searchlight-magazine/) is a British anti-fascist investigative magazine founded in 1962 and based in [London](/places/london/). It specialises in documenting far-right extremism in the United Kingdom and internationally. Searchlight ran informants inside [Combat 18](/organizations/combat-18/), [Blood and Honour](/organizations/blood-and-honour/), and related neo-Nazi organisations throughout the 1990s, most notably Darren Wells (alias McKenzie), who co-authored the C18 booklet with Wilf Browning and acknowledged in 2002 that he had been working as a Searchlight/Special Branch informant. The magazine published the first public identification of [David Myatt](/people/david-myatt/) as the founder of the [Order of Nine Angles](/organizations/order-of-nine-angles/) under the pseudonym Anton Long in its April 1998 cover story. In 1999, Searchlight journalists worked with BBC *Panorama* to investigate the links between David Copeland and Myatt's National Socialist Movement (UK, 1997).[^1] ### Founding and Format Searchlight was founded in 1962, initially as an activist newsletter, and developed over subsequent decades into a specialist investigative publication. Its editorial approach combines journalism with a network of informants embedded in far-right organisations. Its long-run investigation of the British neo-Nazi scene in the 1980s and 1990s produced some of the most detailed primary-source reporting on those organisations available in the public record. In the early 2000s, editor Gerry Gable and journalist Nick Lowles were its most prominent public voices. Lowles subsequently left Searchlight to co-found HOPE not hate.[^2] ### The Darren Wells Operation Darren Wells, operating under the alias McKenzie, was Searchlight's most significant informant inside Combat 18. He was embedded in the Wilf Browning faction of C18 and co-authored the C18 booklet, one of the organisation's primary propaganda and recruitment documents. Wells became Browning's trusted associate and travelled with him to meet ITV's World in Action journalists in 1997. During that period he developed an independent relationship with Nick Lowles and, according to Lowles's own account, eventually became one of the most important informants Searchlight had ever run. In 2002, Wells publicly acknowledged his informant role.[^3] Larry O'Hara of Notes From The Borderland has analysed Wells's role critically, arguing that Searchlight's handling of Wells represents an ambiguous case of state-adjacent intelligence operations by a private anti-fascist organisation. O'Hara contends that Wells's position within the Browning faction, combined with allegations against Sargent, created the mutual suspicion that escalated into the Christopher Castle murder in 1997. The magazine has disputed this analysis.[^3] ### The April 1998 Cover Story: Myatt and O9A Searchlight's April 1998 issue carried a cover photograph of David Myatt taken at a Combat 18 demonstration in London, with the headline "The Most Evil Nazi in Britain." The five-page cover story identified Myatt as Anton Long, the founder of the Order of Nine Angles, and described O9A as "a secret society that prides itself on following traditional Satanism... formed by Myatt himself in the 1980s." This was the first public identification of the Myatt/Long connection in any publication. The attribution predated any O9A interest in constructing a counter-narrative, which gives it evidential weight in the scholarly attribution debate.[^4] The story drew on Searchlight's monitoring of Myatt through the C18 period and described his trajectory in neo-Nazi politics from Colin Jordan's British Movement through the National Democratic Freedom Movement, his involvement in C18, and his founding of the National Socialist Movement (UK, 1997) with Steve Sargent in June 1997.[^4] ### BBC Panorama Joint Investigation (1999) Following David Copeland's April 1999 nail-bomb campaign, Searchlight and BBC *Panorama* conducted a joint investigation into the links between Copeland and the NSM and the degree to which he had been influenced by Myatt's writings. The investigation documented that Copeland had studied "A Practical Guide to Aryan Revolution" and had been welcomed into the NSM as Southern Regional Organiser by Tony Williams, the leader who succeeded Myatt. The joint programme ran on the BBC after Copeland's trial and contributed to public pressure for Myatt's prosecution, which did not result in charges.[^5] ### O9A Coverage Searchlight has continued to document O9A as a current terrorism threat. In June 2023, the magazine published "What is the Order of the Nine Angles?" and in April 2025 an anniversary piece on the Copeland attacks, maintaining its long-run documentation of the Myatt nexus. The magazine has consistently supported calls for O9A proscription.[^6] [^1]: Notes From The Borderland. "Combat 18 and MI5: Some Background Notes." https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/ [^2]: Hope Not Hate. "About." hopenothate.org.uk (Nick Lowles co-founder background). [^3]: Notes From The Borderland (Larry O'Hara). "Combat 18 and MI5: Some Background Notes." https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/; O'Hara, Larry. *Turning Up the Heat: MI5 After the Cold War.* Phoenix Press, 1994. [^4]: Searchlight Magazine, April 1998. Cover story: "The Most Evil Nazi in Britain." Documented via secondary sources; original issue in Searchlight archive. [^5]: Searchlight Magazine. "25 years on: The hunt for the London nailbomber," April 2024. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2024/04/25-years-on-the-hunt-for-the-london-nailbomber/ [^6]: Searchlight Magazine. "What is the Order of the Nine Angles?" June 2023. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2023/06/what-is-the-order-of-the-nine-angles/; "Remembering the Admiral Duncan attack," April 2025. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2025/04/remembering-the-admiral-duncan-attack/