POLICE IN LONDON have issued an apology to women who engaged in relationships with undercover officers.
The case has been ongoing for the past four years and has seen seven women in total come forward.
In a statement today, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Martin Hewitt has said that the behaviour was “totally unacceptable” and that each of the seven claims had recently been settled.
One of the most high-profile out of these was Mark Kennedy who spent seven years undercover in the environmental protest community.
He had been in a relationship with a woman for six years when she discovered his true identity.
In an interview with The Guardian, she said that Kennedy had been “the closest person in the world to me”.
‘A gross violation of personal dignity’
“Thanks in large part to the courage and tenacity of these women in bringing these matters to light it has become apparent that some officers, acting undercover whilst seeking to infiltrate protest groups, entered into long-term intimate sexual relationships with women which were abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong,” said Hewitt.
The officers in question were working for the Special Demonstration Squad, a unit within the Met Police’s Special branch that was in existence up until 2008, and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, which was operational until 2011.
“I wish to make a number of matters absolutely clear, most importantly, relationships like these should never have happened. They were wrong and a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity,” Hewitt went on.
The forming of a sexual relationship by an undercover officer would never be authorised in advance nor indeed be used as a tactic of a deployment.
It is also stated that in circumstances where an officer did form a sexual relationship they would be required to report it and an investigation would take place.
The relationships in question have been the subject of a number of investigations, including a criminal and misconduct enquiry by the Met Police called Operation Herne.
The BBC has reported that in total five former undercover officers have been caught up in the case.
Besides Mark Kennedy, these include Bob Lambert, who fathered a child with a woman while undercover, Jim Boyling, Mark Jenner and John Dines.
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