Imagine watching a UK ‘spy cop’ whose lies destroyed lives trying to explain it away. This is what that was like

The Royal Courts of Justice during the undercover policing inquiry, London, 25 March 2019. Photograph: David Rowe/Alamy

In 2011, I brought a legal case against the Metropolitan police after being deceived into an intimate, sexual relationship by one of their undercover officers. I have been waiting for the day when I could eye-ball one of those responsible. Thirteen years later, I have still not received any disclosure about why Mark Jenner was deployed into my most private life for five years, under the name Mark Cassidy.

But at the public inquiry into undercover policing, I have finally heard some of the feeble excuses made by his manager, Bob Lambert MBE, who himself deceived four women into having sexual relationships, using his alter ego Bob Robinson.