Spycops: State sponsored adult grooming
What is ‘Spycops’ about?
Police investigating activist groups were encouraged to form relationships with members of those groups to infiltrate them. Often the people they targetted for relationships were not the actual targets of investigations, merely ‘disposable assets’ who were horrendously used to obtain information.
Information the police actually accrued undercover appears sparse, but the officers involved, in our view, overstepped a line by forming romantic and sexual relationships with people, even having children.
Some of the officers were married and lived doubly double lives. Some took the identities of children who had died.
It is almost impossible to justify the officers’ actions. Mnay people’s lives were ruined, and the long term effects linger on.
There are still enquiries and legal activities, but justice for the deceived victims does not seem to be served, and accountability a distant dream.
The long term effects of these behaviours include the fact that Rape by Deception has effectively been rendered legal, with no way for those deceived into relationships having little legal recourse unless other crimes have been committed.
There is an important societal conversation to be had about boundaries and accountability in policing. Too many lives have been destroyed for simply standing up for what they believed was the right thing to do, using their right to protest. When campaigners break laws, they are all aware that they may face consequences. When they join a group and find themselves deceived at a personal and intimate level, that’s a separate conversation.
It’s not an understatement to say that the Spycops case hits at the very core of our justice and democracy systems, with far reaching political consequences, and deserves far closer attention than it currently receives.
‘Alison’s story
Kate Williams talks about her own ‘spycops’ story and legal journey.
ITV Love and Lies
“The chilling true story of scores of officers who posed as loving partners - and the women who became detectives to expose the infamous Spycops scandal.”
When the State puts spies into people’s lives, it’s way more than undercover policing. It’s grooming.
Former undercover policeman Mark Kennedy (AKA Mark Stone) speaks to Channel 4 News. One thing is clear - he refutes that the force knew nothing.
An interview with Alison, who was aware that the police might watch, but had no idea about the truth. Trained, funded, false id.
Bob Lambert, an undercover spy, duped ‘Jackie’ into a relationship. A child was born. The Met acknowledged the relationship shouldn’t have happened, but are failing to address their duty to the child, and tried to fight him in court, denying responsibility.
ITV Love and Lies
People begin to understand what’s happening, and the level of deceit is frightening.
“Alison and Helen discover that their exes were part of a covert police spy unit, and Lisa exposes Mark online.”
We have tried to keep what we’re covering here to just mainstream media.
However, this is a former undercover police officer talking about tactics used.
Eleanor talks about how her environmental activism left her a target to police infiltrators who went too far. Rules were broken.
ITV Love and Lies
The women turn detective, uncover a state secret, and take legal action, as pressure piles onto the Metropolitan Police.
The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, 1999 (Macpherson)
22 April 1993. 18 year old Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in Eltham where he was waiting for a bus with his friend Duwayne Brooks.
Racial tensions were already high, largely because the police had disproportionately been using 'stop and search' ('sus') targetting young black men. The 1981 Brixton riots saw clashes between mainly black youths and the Metropolitan Police in Brixton, London. They were not isolated. Toxteth (Liverpool), Handsworth (Birmingham) and Chapeltown (Leeds), Broadwater Farm (London), Brixton (London) and Handsworth (Birmingham) also saw riots.
In 1978, issues had been highlighted in a report by the Commission for Racial Equality and others were to follow, all highlighting issues of unfair targetting and treatment.
It is only thanks to the utter dogged persistence of Stephen’s family, friends and community that justice even started to be done.
The events of that evening were not only to change the UK laws of double jeopardy (meaning that two of his murderers were finally convicted in 2012 - six aggressors had forced Lawrence to the ground and stabbed him in a brutal attack). Shady policing practises were to emerge. Urcover policing was to come under scrutiny, and efforts still continue today to deal with institutional racism in UK policing.
The report that set things in motion was The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, run by Sir William Macpherson, which is also known as the Macpherson report or referred to as ‘Macpherson’.
Started in 1997, it took two years to complete, finally being published on February 24, 1999.
See: The Macpherson Report (pdf)
The recommendations were far reaching, including that a Ministerial Priority be established for all Police Services: "To increase trust and confidence in policing amongst minority ethnic communities". and that Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary (HMIC) be granted “full and unfettered powers and duties to inspect all parts of Police Services including the Metropolitan Police Service”, an inspection to include all “current undetected HOLMES based murders and Reviews into such cases”. It was clear. The Police needed policing.
“We are bound to say that the conclusion which we reach is inescapable. Inappropriate behaviour and patronising attitudes towards this black family were the product and a manifestation of unwitting racism at work. Coupled with the failure of the senior officers to see Mr & Mrs Lawrence and to sort out the family liaison we see here a clear example of the collective failure of the investigating team to treat Mr & Mrs Lawrence appropriately and professionally, because of their colour, culture and ethnic origin.”
The Barker Review
The Barker Review was the Metropolitan Police's own inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence investigation.
Author Detective Chief Supt John Barker was criticised by Macpherson for deliberately not reaching any negative conclusions. Barker had even considered writing two versions of his review, one honest and one which omitted "any adverse references to the investigation" for the defence solicitors.
Sir William was fiercely critical of the Barker’s final review, which senior Met officers had been prepared to accept unquestioningly."
A later report was to find that “DCS Barker had imposed shackles upon his consideration as a result of what he sought to explain as “guidance” from senior officers. This had resulted in a flawed and indefensible report that had been deliberately ‘toned down’.”
It was early public outcry over the injustice that had led to the Macpherson inquiry.
Later Reviews
2014 THE STEPHEN LAWRENCE INDEPENDENT REVIEW (Possible corruption and the role of undercover policing in the Stephen Lawrence case)
Operation Herne
Operation Herne was an investigation undertaken by Mick Creedon, Chief Constable Derbyshire Constabulary. It was set up by the Metropolitan Police in October 2011 to investigate allegations of misconduct by undercover police.
Operation Herne was tasked to investigate allegations that:
SDS officers’ engaged in sexual relationships whilst deployed.
they used deceased children’s identities in the creation of their covert identity.
they targeted ‘Black Justice Campaigns’.
officers appeared in court using covert identities.
SDS officers supplied intelligence to ‘The Blacklist’*
SDS officers were tasked to gain information that might be used to ‘smear’ the Stephen Lawrence family and Duwayne Brooks, and they were reported on
Widespread media coverage of Peter Francis’ claims about his time as an undercover officer for the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). (He is also known as Peter Black and Officer A) largely triggered the reporting, which fell into three reports:
The reports and coverage blew the lid on SDS undercover officers having inappropriate sexual relationships whilst deployed. It exposed the ‘Tradecraft’ document which provides informal tacit authority and guidance for officers faced with the prospect of a sexual relationship (although at the time no evidence was found of sexual activity ever being explicitly authorised and or of sexual activity being utilised as a management supported tactic to aid infiltration, something that time seems to have challenged.
Whilst some managers within the SDS (!993-1997) expressly forbade sexual relationships, officers have admitted to inappropriate sexual relationships whilst deployed undercover.
Legal counsel was asked to consider offences such as rape, indecent assault, and procurement of a woman by false pretences and misconduct in a public office. The written advice received was that in their opinion those offences were that the behaviour alleged did not amount to a sexual offence.
Undercover actions were consequently characterised as unstructured and ad-hoc, and investigations began into allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships. Some women were already engaged in civil actions alleging intimate relationships with undercover officers; Three children were alleged to have been born as a result of these relationships. Complainants were naturally reluctant to engage.
No offences contrary to Sexual Offences legislation were identified, although possible offences of Misconduct in a Public Office were noted. Although they had no evidence at the time that sexual relationships between undercover officers and activists were ever officially sanctioned or authorised by the SDS management, there was clear (written)evidence of informal tacit authority regarding sexual relationships - guidance was offered for officers faced with the prospect of a sexual relationship. Relationships were characterised as consensual, and an advice file was submitted to the CPS for consideration regarding potential criminal charges.
The report concluded that “Any circumstances where it would be appropriate for such covertly deployed officers to engage in intimate sexual relationships with those they are employed to infiltrate and target. Such an activity can only be seen as an abject failure of the deployment, a gross abuse of their role and their position as a police officer and an individual and organisational failing. It is of real concern that a distinct lack of intrusive management by senior leaders within the MPS appears to have facilitated the development and apparent circulation of internal inappropriate advice regarding an undercover police officers engagement in sexual relationships.”
*The Blacklist: A Blacklist is defined as a list or register of entities or people who. for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition; a list privately exchanged among employers, containing the names of persons to be barred from employment because of untrustworthiness or for holding opinions considered undesirable. The first organisation known to have coordinated “Blacklisting" in the UK was the Economic League (EL). Established in 1919 to protect Free Trade from the growth in popularity of Marxism/Communism at the time, their blacklist recorded those deemed to be left-wing troublemakers within the whole range of industry. The EL closed in 1993, after a series of scandals regarding the accuracy of its material and a parliamentary inquiry. (Source: Operation Herne archives)
The Ellison Review
In July 2012, politician Teresa May commissioned Mark Ellison QC to conduct a review examining allegations of corruption surrounding the initial, deeply flawed, investigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Ellison was also asked to examine whether the Metropolitan Police had evidence of corruption that it had not disclosed to the Macpherson Inquiry.
The Enquiry
The Undercover Policing Enquiry was set up in 2015 to get to the truth about undercover policing across England and Wales since 1968 and provide recommendations for the future.
It is uncovering lots of information, including information about victims who already spoken up. It is believed that there may be around 200 victims groomed by police officers in order to obtain information about activists, people campaigning for what they believed in.
Some may have broken the law in pursuit of their aims, but policing overstepped a mark when people were duped into intimate relationships with people who were not who they believed them to be.
Grooming? Absolutely. Intent: the officers intended to deceive; Consent: the vistims would not have consented to intimate personal relationships had they known the truth.
So far the enquiry is one of the most expensive in British history, by April 2026 believed to be clocking in at around £120 million, although final figures will be produced later.
Information on Andy Coles’ ‘Tradecraft Manual’, which shows clearly that this was an organised infiltration rather than officers acting beyong their scope: Tradecraft Manual
This is the video channel for the enquiry: Undercover Policing Enquiry official YouTube channel.
World Unspun video podcast on Jessica’s part in the enquiry
Lambert’s undercover role - persuading people into an anti-fur attack on Debenhams. And even had a child with an activist.
The Lush Campaign
The cosmetics company, Lush, bravely took on Skycops as a campaign.
As environmental campaigners, it made sense - their own staff are campaigners.
But it missed the mark. They were hit by a backlash that saw their staff threatened, and branches visited by police officers suggesting they stop.