Son of ‘spy cop’ backs Lush anti-police stunt

A MAN who discovered he was fathered by an undercover police officer yesterday backed the controversial ‘spy cops’ protest campaign by cosmetics firm Lush.

The unnamed man, a core participant in an inquiry into undercover police tactics, says his rights have been ignored.

He praised Lush, which put photos of officers with the slogan ‘Paid to lie’ in shop windows last month.

He says his mother was duped into a relationship with an officer who posed as an animal rights activist while spying on her before disappearing two years after he was born. For years he believed his father had gone on the run to escape arrest.

Lush sparked outrage when it launched what critics called a ‘crass and insensitive anti-police hate campaign’. The company said it was supporting the Police Spies Out Of Lives campaign for women tricked into sleeping with undercover officers who infiltrated anticapitalist and green protest groups over a 40-year period.

Lush removed the posters last week, citing intimidation of staff by former police officers.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid criticised the protest – approved by Lush’s Jeremy Corbyn-supporting co-founder Mark Constantine – saying: ‘I never thought I would see a mainstream British retailer running a public advertising campaign against our hard-working police. This is not a responsible way to make a point.’

Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said the Lush campaign was ‘both insulting and damaging to the tens of thousands of officers who place themselves in harm’s way to protect the public on a daily basis, and who have nothing at all to do with the undercover inquiry’.

But the undercover officer’s son praised the campaign, suggesting police deception led to the systemic, institutional sexual abuse of female activists. He said: ‘My very existence is the result of undercover policing... if they didn’t sleep with those they were spying on, I wouldn’t be here today.

‘If it wasn’t for the work of activists and journalists exposing undercover police, would I have ever found out? The police denied me the chance to meet my father earlier, to forgive him earlier and to build a relationship with him when I was struggling to develop an identity of my own.

‘I am so grateful to Lush for using its shop windows to highlight what the police and state get up to in order to suppress political activism they don’t agree with.

‘To attack Lush is to side with the current police approach of not talking with me and other victims, not allowing us to know the truth... and move on with our lives.

‘Rather than join in with the cynical attacks on Lush, Sajid Javid should use his position to demand the police properly engage with the public inquiry.’

Were you affected by the undercover police scandal? Email police@dailymail.co.uk