They thought they had met the man of their dreams, someone to spend the rest of their lives with. But in reality these men were playing a role, faking relationships and in one case even having a child with a woman as part of their 'job' to spy on campaigners and activists. The full inside story of a secret unit of undercover police, paid to spy on ordinary members of the public, will now be laid bare in a shocking TV documentary series.
ITV have joined forces with five women to tell the extraordinary story of their intimate relationships with police officers who they had no idea were deployed in covert operations. In total more than 60 women were deceived into deeply intimate relationships with officers, with new women still finding out in recent months about this cover up for decades.
The women who were deceived and blew the lid off the scandal will speak on camera collectively for the first time in The Undercover Police Scandal about how they turned detective to uncover one of the state’s biggest secrets. One woman identified as Lisa who had a long term relationship with an undercover policeman says: "They underestimated our intelligence. The police never in a million years imagined that we would all be in a room together, comparing notes.".
Helen says: "They just never imagined that we would be capable of tracking down and finding out who they really were. When we started, each of us were fighting on our own and we spoke to a few people and quite often got the reaction 'you're being paranoid'. It was only really when we came together that we could see the patterns emerge. This wasn't an accident or a rogue officer which is how they tried to portray it at the start. This is institutional sexism being handed from officer to officer, how to deceive women into relationships and use them for cover or for sex.
"When we started there were eight of us who had relationships between us with five different officers over 25 years and that showed the systematic nature of it. Through the public inquiry we know there are at least 60 women who have been deceived and we also don't have all the names of the officers yet. So we are quite sure there are a lot more. It is a serious problem that needs tackling. We hope this documentary will raise the profile of the issue.".
Another victim at the hands of the police called Alison adds: "We hope that this contributes to a shift in the culture, you know, a shift away from misogyny and sexism that's been institutionalised in the police, and that we hope it makes some change, because that is why we got involved in this in the first place.".
In response to the programme, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jon Savell has now admitted to ITV in a statement that the relationships were "abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong". In a full statement he said: "It would be inappropriate to comment on some of the issues raised as there is evidence yet to be heard by the Undercover Policing Inquiry with which we are fully cooperating.
"However, I'd like to apologise unreservedly for the significant harm and distress caused to the women who were deceived into sexual relationships by undercover officers. These were abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong. The Met failed to make clear to undercover officers and their managers in the 1980s that such relationships were unacceptable or provide training and guidance.
"Undercover policing has undergone significant reform since this happened and today is underpinned by strong governance and oversight with clear ethical guidelines and a legislative framework.". But Naomi, who features on the programme after being deceived herself during an eight month relationship, responded by saying: "The apology is not worth the screen it's printed on, it is hollow and empty. If they are actually sorry they would actually do something to change it and let us know what happened.
"The only reason this is out there is because the women involved found them out and this has been exposed. It was an entire institution that put a police officer in my bed in order to spy on me and all my friends and family." The work of the women who turned detectives ultimately led to an almost decade-long £88 million public inquiry which is still ongoing.
Director Lucy Wilcox was keen to make sure the women and their injustice is heard on a wider scale. She said: "What ITV does really well is tell the story. The audience does care once they understand what has happened. This story is so dense but I am hoping by packaging it this way people feel galvanised to get involved.
"They didn't find anything out. There is not a piece of Police paperwork I've seen that justifies any of this. One of them has got an MBE and they have all been told they have done a very good job.". At the public inquiry in November, a former animal rights activist known as Jacqui, described how the undercover officer Bob Lambert fathered their son in 1985 and then vanished two years after his birth, claiming to be on the run from the police. Lambert told her lies after leaving, and she uncovered the truth by accident when she read about him in the media.
