Pace of cop probe protecting secrets
THEY are some of the fiercest injustices of our time – spying cops having sex with women, infiltrating legal campaigns and trade unions and helping bosses blacklist innocent staff.
Not to mention the shameless snooping on the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
So trade union leaders in Manchester this week and Labour figures such as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who champions the unlawfully blacklisted, are entitled to be furious.
Four years ago Theresa May announced an inquiry into undercover policing but it is progressing at a snail’s pace.
This is the establishment’s way of fighting back to keep its dirty secrets.
Heading the inquiry is retired judge and member of London’s exclusive men-only Garrick Club Sir John Mitting, 70, who concedes he may be a little old-fashioned.
He lost the victims’ confidence long ago. He was pilloried as an out of touch “white, upper middle class, elderly gentleman” by their lawyer during a dramatic walkout.
The treatment of women like Jessica, who claims she was deceived by undercover detectives living secret double lives, was one of the worst abuses in Scotland Yard’s history. For her the inquiry is not bringing justice. Jessica, the name she uses to protect her privacy, is suing the police.
There may be as many as 1,000 groups controversially monitored over 40 years.
Damages have already been paid to about a dozen sexploited women, some of whom had babies.
Undercover cop Jim Boyling, who operated as Jim Sutton, was sacked this year for sleeping with an enviromental campaigner.
Animal rights activist Jessica believes her first real boyfriend, when she was a naive 19 wasn’t 24 and single but 32 and married with a kid.
The man she knew as Andy Davey, nicknamed Andy Van because he’d drive protesters to demos, was plain clothes cop Andy Coles.
He authored an official police guide on how to trick targets. Haunted Jessica, now in her 40s living in the Home Counties, told me: “I feel sick at what happened. I’d have never let him anywhere near me if I’d known the truth.
“I was tricked, deceived. I feel as if he groomed me. He was my first proper boyfriend and it’s particularly awful. I was naive, vulnerable. He was a dirty old man.”
Coles, a Peterborough Tory councillor and school governor quit as Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough when outed last year.
He admits spying on animal rights groups but denies sleeping with Jessica. He denied her “lurid” claims in a statement to a local newspaper and said animal groups were famous for their “bullying” yet refused to discuss Jessica’s allegations with me.
“Dear Kevin, Thank you for your email. I have no further comment to make at this time. All the best. Andy Coles,” was his brush-off.
Bizarrely, Coles double life as Davey, his mum’s maiden name, was accidentally exposed BY HIS pop star brother turned radio star vicar Richard Coles.
The ex Communard’s autobiography gave enough clues about Andy’s double life for him to be identified by betrayed protesters. Far from ending burning injustices. Theresa May’s snail inquiry is fuelling them.