Former police chief allowed undercover cop to dupe woman into having sex
SCOTLAND’S former police chief personally signed off an undercover operation which involved an officer duping a woman into sex, the Daily Record can reveal.
Ex-chief constable Phil Gormley sanctioned deep cover infiltration by spy cop Mark Kennedy who deceived Kate Wilson into an intimate relationship.
Kate was an environmental activist targeted by a secret Metropolitan Police squad called the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU).
Kennedy spent seven years as a spy cop infiltrating the lives of environmental campaigners.
He deceived at least three other women into relationships.
Kate had a two-year relationship with Kennedy and does not know why she was personally targeted.
She discovered his true identity in 2010 and is taking legal action against the Metropolitan Police and the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Kate says police violated her human rights.
She has already successfully sued police but is continuing her fight for the truth by taking the case to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT).
The IPT investigate complaints that law agencies unlawfully used covert techniques.
In a submission to the IPT, Kate said edited documents from the Metropolitan Police revealed Gormley personally signed off Kennedy’s undercover investigation into her.
At the time, Gormley was head of Special Branch and secretary of a counter terrorism committee which oversaw Kennedy’s disgraced and now disbanded unit, the NPOIU.
Kate said she felt “devastated” after finding Kennedy systematically lied to her and she wants the truth revealed about which senior officers sanctioned the spy cops’ activities.
She said: “I want to know how high up in the police the relationships of undercover officers with women they targeted were known and authorised.
“That is the reason why I continued the case about my human rights claim in the IPT.
“The sample disclosure we have been given by the police is disgraceful for the amount of redactions. However, the fact that Phil Gormley is named as someone who authorised Mark Kennedy’s deployment targeting me is a first step, however tiny, in getting the answers we have been fighting for. And will continue to.”
While Gormley was overseeing the NPOIU, it ran spy cops such as Kennedy, Lynn Watson and Marco Jacobs.
All three worked undercover in Scotland and infiltrated protests at the 2005 G8 Summit at Gleneagles.
Kennedy used the name Mark Stone in his infiltration of the climate protest movement, and was known as “Flash” to campaigners.
Kate started her relationship with Kennedy in 2003 when she was involved in organising protests against a summit of G8 leaders in Scotland.
The police have admitted Kennedy’s line managers knew he was having an intimate relationship with Kate and allowed it to continue.
Gormley was appointed chief constable of Scotland in 2015 but resigned in February amid allegations of bullying.
The Met said the Undercover Policing Inquiry would be probing the actions of the NPOIU.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council declined to comment and Gormley did not respond to our request for a statement.