Spy cops: Don’t blame us, blame our MI5 handlers
Officers play down affairs with political activists
POLICE officers at the centre of a ‘spy cops’ public inquiry have hit back at criticism for having sex with women they met under cover and ‘stealing’ the identity of dead children.
In a defiant response, they denied being racist and sexist, and claimed that MI5 encouraged them to monitor thousands of political activists.
A number of former undercover policemen will give evidence to the inquiry, led by retired judge Justice Mitting, which began yesterday.
The inquiry was ordered by Theresa May when she was home secretary in 2014 following anger over the disclosure that police spied on the family of teenager Stephen Lawrence after he was killed by racist thugs in 1993.
Undercover officer turned whistleblower
Peter Francis revealed in 2013 that he posed as an anti-racist to find ‘dirt’ to smear the Lawrences.
This newspaper has obtained details of the official legal submission to the inquiry on behalf of 74 officers who worked for the Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstrations Service, or SDS.
Set up in 1968 at the time of protests against the Vietnam War, the unit focused on scores of organisations, including environmental and animal rights campaigners.
The officers play down the fact that some had sex with women they met under cover – who had no idea they were policemen using fake names.
‘Four had casual sex, two had long-term sexual relationships, 68 did not,’ they say, adding: ‘One-night stands happen in all walks of life.’
The submission adds that 16 of the 117 officers who served in the SDS – around one in seven – had ‘intimate relationships that went beyond casual sex while deployed’. One former officer whose conduct will be investigated is Mark Kennedy, who posed as a green campaigner, and had a two-year relationship with activist Kate Wilson. Miss Wilson took police to court claiming she was ‘deceived and abused’ and won her case in 2016.
The officers’ legal submission says undercover police ‘need healthy levels of ego and confidence’ and some got carried away with ‘leading a double life in an elite group’.
The submission accepts that such behaviour was ‘operationally unnecessary, harmful and wrong’, and police with ‘promiscuous’ lifestyles should be barred from such duties. But the officers reject claims that SDS was a ‘rogue unit’ and argue that security service chiefs and successive governments not only approved their work but encouraged it.
‘MI5 were far from passive and reluctant recipients of SDS reports,’ they say.
The police also point the finger of blame at MI5 for the way undercover police routinely stole the identities of dead children to provide fake ID until the 1990s.
The practice was ‘ used and developed’ by the security services, they say. Some police were uncomfortable with it, while others saw it as ‘necessary tradecraft’. However, the officers acknowledge it caused ‘a great deal of upset’ to the children’s families when they found out – as many did.
The police say that living undercover took its toll on them too, with one in five left with mental health problems.
They make it clear they resent the way they are effectively being put in the dock by the inquiry. They also object to it being set up, its terms of reference and its cost – £30million so far.
They mount a vigorous defence of the SDS, saying it ‘protected public order’ and helped MI5 protect the realm.
‘If there was a right to disrupt for political objectives without police being able to defend public order there would be pandemonium,’ they argue.
The submission notes that many of those being spied on had ‘totalitarian aims’ and adds that the ‘failings of a few [SDS officers] should not be allowed to overshadow the hard work and dedication of others’.
This newspaper revealed yesterday that the inquiry is to ask why the police spies had reported on anti- racist and women’s rights campaigners, trade unionists and Left-wing MPs.
In their submission the former undercover officers maintain that Britain was ‘culturally different’ when the SDS was created. ‘Don’t judge 20th century actions by 21st century standards,’ they plead.
The inquiry continues.
‘One-night stands are in all walks of life’