Content Warning: This article mentions sexual assault

For four decades, 140 undercover members of the British police force were sent to spy on, primarily left-wing, political groups. Beginning in 1968, when the country saw rising levels of political unrest and activism, the police force wanted to gain insight into how law-abiding activists were functioning and what to expect from their political action. This hushed mission involved the officers embedding themselves into activist’s lives for roughly five years. What’s more, in a grossly insensitive and distasteful move, the fake identities adopted by the officers and used in their documentation were those of dead children. Unsurprisingly, the bereaved families were not informed. This scandal came into public view after an environmental activist discovered that her boyfriend – who she believed to be a fellow ecowarrior – had a different name on his passport. Officers tried to hush the story, suggesting that this was a one-off instance, but clearly this was not the case. 

Unfortunately, this scandal has yet another sinister side to it, and one that has to do with the exploitation of women. In an attempt to further immerse themselves in the lives of the activists they were spying on, many undercover officers purposefully seduced, often very young, women into sexual relationships. In order to avoid suspicions at a ‘lack of interest’ in the female activists, undercover officers were directed to attempt ‘fleeting disastrous relationships with individuals,’ in a move they hoped would reduce complications for those spying. In other words, Metropolitan police officers were directly instructed to obstruct the lives of innocent female activists in order to manufacture what were no doubt to be troublesome intimate relationships. 

An example of this took place in 1992, where a 19-year-old environmental activist had a year-long relationship with a man who she believed to be a 24-year-old fellow activist. She discovered 25 years later, in 2017, that he was in fact a 32-year-old ‘spycop’. Sharing her story for The Guardian, she remarks: ‘that’s the worst thing, I think, is to know that he was so old.’ Indeed, whilst the officer Andy Coles denies his relationship with her, she believes she was ‘groomed’ by him. At least 20 other relationships like these are believed to have taken place, with three of the officers even fathering the children of women they met whilst undercover.

So, not only were the British Metropolitan Police encouraging their officers to adopt the personas of dead children and infiltrate the lives of activists, violating their trust, but it also involved the coercion of unknowing women into romantic relationships. Importantly, as all these women were kept in the dark, all the sexual relations that took place between spies and activists lacked informed consent. This scandal, therefore, involves the British police service – an institution who we are supposed to feel protected by – spending decades using the bodies and vulnerability of women for their own gain. We might expect, or at least hope, this story becoming public would cause so much shock and disgust that it becomes the only thing on anyone’s lips. Yet alas, and unfortunately not to my surprise, it seems me to be yet another hushed instance of abhorrent abuse toward women that does not get the airtime it deserves.

Nevertheless, there might be hope for these women – and indeed everyone the British police took advantage of – in getting justice. The least the victims of the scandal can hope for is appropriate retribution, and perhaps they will get it. Firstly, the police have already paid at least 12 of the female victims compensation. Further to this, in 2014, the then Home Secretary Theresa May set up a public inquiry into the scandal. Subjecting the scandal to a judge-led public inquiry renders it ‘on a statutory par’ with the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. Hence, after three years of revelations and outcry, this move seemingly provided recognition of its severity. 

However, perhaps we should hold off on high hopes for justice, as often seems to be the case when women have been exploited. To begin with, the chair of the public inquiry is Sir John Mitting, who as a member of the men-only Garrick club does not look like a great starting point for achieving widespread justice for the women involved. In fact, Kate Wilson, one of the victims of the scandal, argues that he is ‘out of touch with the realities of institutional sexism, racism and political persecution, which are what the inquiry is about.’ 

To make matters worse, he agreed to grant 50 of the ‘spycops’ complete anonymity, meaning that when they give evidence, their identities will be hidden. This is not only in the case of their real identities, but also the undercover personas that they adopted. This means that many of those exploited will never know about their own deception. The reasons for this move are ones that Phillipa Kaufmann, one of the QC’s defending victims of spying, believes to be ‘scant and largely uninformative.’ Apparently the leader of the inquiry, then, is more interested in protecting individuals involved in a gross abuse of power than he is in protecting their victims. This speaks volumes to what female victims of abuse can hope for from the British justice system. 

This was an instance of vile exploitation of women to begin with, and with the help of a retired, self-proclaimed ‘old-fashioned’ judge, it continues to be a glaring instance of sexism. To top it all off, long-term investigators of this scandal for The Guardian admit that they ‘would not be shocked’ to find out that these sorts of operations were still taking place. 

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