Undercover Met police officers deceived women into having sex including when it was unnecessary to maintain their cover in a practice that brought “shame” upon them, a damning report has found.
The Undercover Policing Inquiry, set up eight years ago by the Home Secretary, said there was no justification for the way in which left-wing and anarchist groups were infiltrated by Scotland Yard’s former Special Demonstration Squad and that its activities would have been brought to a “rapid end” if the tactics had been known to the public at the time.
It emphasised that the “great majority of undercover officers” deployed at the time believed what they were doing was lawful and in the public interest and that some had acted with “great skill and courage” in performing their duties.
It added that there was also no political bias in the deployment of officers against left-wing groups but listed a succession of instances of unacceptable conduct.
These included the case of a married officer who admitted a relationship with one woman, and kissing and fondling another woman, who is described as having “expressed proper shame about the betrayal of his wife and the breach of his duties as a police officer.”
Thursday’s report, compiled by inquiry chairman Sir John Mitting, a former High Court judge, added that “the relationship was not undertaken with a view to bolstering his cover” or with the knowledge of his superiors.
Another officer “freely accepted that what he had done was wrong and regretted the injury he had caused” to a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship for up to two months and also confessed to another “fleeting sexual relationship” with another woman as his deployment was about to end.
The relationship “can have served no purpose relevant to his deployment”, the report said.
Sir John added: “The principal, stated purpose of the Special Demonstration Squad was to assist uniformed police to control public order in London. Long-term deployments into left-wing and anarchist groups did make a real contribution to achieving this end.
“The question is whether or not the end justified the means set out above. I have come to the firm conclusion that, for a unit of a police force, it did not; and that had the use of these means been publicly known at the time, the Special Demonstration Squad would have been brought to a rapid end.”
The interim report covers only the years between 1968 when the Special Demonstration Squad was set up and 1982.
Further findings will be published later and Sir John says the full impact of “the conduct of male police officers on women deceived into sexual relationships” and the impact on surviving relatives on the families of deceased children whose identities were used as cover will be only be assessed once the inquiry is completed.
