Secret police spy units ‘real subversion of democracy’, say campaigners
A group of women were speaking out ahead of the publication of the first part of a long-running public inquiry into undercover policing.
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Your support makes all the difference.Secret police units who spied on political activists should never have existed and undermined democracy, campaigners have said ahead of the publication of a landmark report.
The findings of the first part of the long-running public inquiry into undercover policing are due to be published on Thursday, covering the actions of a shadowy Metropolitan Police unit between 1968 to 1982.
It is the first part of an inquiry covering the activities of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and its successor the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU).
The state covertly surveilling its citizens like it has done, and its thousands and thousands of citizens not just the people involved in the inquiry, is a real subversion of democracy
The inquiry, which has so far cost £64 million, was set up in 2015 by then-home secretary Theresa May in response to outrage over various tactics used by undercover officers.
They were found to have had sexual relationships with women without revealing their true identities, assumed the names of dead children as cover without the bereaved relatives’ consent, and spied on targets including campaigners supporting the grieving family of Stephen Lawrence.
Eleanor Fairbraida, who has waived her right to anonymity, had a sexual relationship with Mark Kennedy, who she did not know was in fact a married officer who slept with at least 10 women while undercover between 2003 and 2010.
She told the PA news agency: “These units should never have been there in the first place.
“It’s a subversion of our democracy, we were just trying to make the world a better place.
“The state covertly surveilling its citizens like it has done, and its thousands and thousands of citizens not just the people involved in the inquiry, is a real subversion of democracy.”
During closing statements for the first part of the inquiry in February, the lawyer for the inquiry David Barr KC said that had the unit’s actions been properly reviewed in its early years there was a strong case to conclude it would have been closed down.
He also said that the quality of the intelligence gathered by officers from the SDS from 1968 to 1982 was not justified in terms of the level of intrusion suffered by members of the public.
A group of women deceived into sexual relationships with undercover officers without knowing their true identity want the inquiry to show that a culture of misogyny and sexism existed in the unit from the very beginning.
Alison (not her real name), who lived with Mark Cassidy for five years from 1995 without knowing he was a police officer, only discovered his true identity through her own research after he disappeared.
She told PA: “This is about the context, the history behind it, the culture that was established in those early years, that enabled and facilitated the men that we met to do what they did.”
The campaigners also want greater transparency during future stages of the inquiry, with several witnesses still being kept anonymous.
Alison cites the example of Vince Harvey, who had four sexual relationships with women while undercover and later went on to become director of UK operations at the National Criminal Intelligence Service.
She said: “Who else who’s got anonymity has gone on to take a very senior role?
“This is the importance of transparency. We can’t hold people to account if there’s no transparency.”
We want the finding of institutional sexism and misogyny. We want the finding that these deployments were unlawful, that they were a subversion and an assault on our democracy
The section of evidence relevant to Alison’s case is due to be heard in 2024, even though details of what happened have been known since 2011.
She and fellow campaigners want the inquiry’s final report to conclude that the Metropolitan Police Service was institutionally sexist, and stop similar tactics being used in future.
Legislation passed in 2021 allows undercover informants working for the police or MI5 to commit crimes without being prosecuted in the interests of national security, prevention or detection of crime or in the interests of the UK’s economic well-being.
Alison said: “We want the finding of institutional sexism and misogyny. We want the finding that these deployments were unlawful, that they were a subversion and an assault on our democracy.
“But we also want those findings to impact on future change, because the law has become such that there are no limits, which is very problematic and the Human Rights Act is clearly not sufficient protection.”
The women were not able to speak about the contents of the report, which will be published at 11.30am on Thursday.