Ex-police spy faces probe for ‘deceitful liaisons’
A former undercover police officer is being investigated for deceiving women into sexual relationships while conducting a covert operation.
mark Kennedy, who spent seven years infiltrating environmental groups, is being investigated over whether he conducted ‘inappropriate sexual relationships’ and broke the official Secrets Act by leaking information.
Kennedy went by the name mark Stone while posing as a Left-wing environmental activist in a number of groups such as the Camp for Climate Action, which disbanded in 2011.
He formed a number of intimate relationships – including one
‘Relationship lasted six years’
which lasted six years – without telling the women involved that he was a spy. His bed-hopping activities provoked a tidal wave of legal action and a multi-million pound compensation bill after he was unmasked in 2010.
The Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2014 that he would not be prosecuted for sexual misconduct. But police confirmed an unnamed individual has now been interviewed under caution, with six others as witnesses.
Police have previously admitted that Kennedy deceived four female environmental activists into long- term relationships which were ‘abusive and manipulative’. The women were awarded compensation by Scotland Yard.
Police also conceded that his managers were aware he had deceived one activist, named Kate Wilson, into a sexual relationship – and that they had allowed it to continue.
following the revelations, senior officers drew up rules insisting that police having intimate relationships while undercover were unacceptable unless there was ‘an immediate threat to themselves or others’.
Kennedy was one of about 140 officers who had been involved in spying on more than 1,000 political groups since 1968.
The investigation into Kennedy and his former unit, codenamed operation montrose, began in January 2015 and is led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and conducted by the metropolitan Police.
Kennedy’s unit, the National Public order Intelligence Unit, infiltrated various movements between 1999 and 2011. The unit was later closed down following the revelations about Kennedy and some of his colleagues.
At least 20 undercover officers from Kennedy’s unit and another, the Special Demonstration Squad, are known to have had intimate sexual relationships while using their fake identities between the mid-1970s and 2010, the Guardian reported.
At least 12 female victims have been awarded compensation.
A number of cases were examined by the Crown Prosecution Service, which decided in 2014 that none would be prosecuted for sexual misconduct.
It is not clear why Kennedy is now being investigated after this previous decision.
The NPCC said it could not comment at this stage, as operation montrose was a live investigation.