By Ashley Young-
A former High Court judge has seriously reprimanded the ill practices of polices officers who had sexual relationships while undercover and used dead children’s names to create their false identities.
Following an inquiry set up in 2015 after revelations of numerous abhorrent practices within two undercover policing units, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), Sir John Mitting criticised the illegal practices used by SDS officers to infilterate groups undercover.
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He also criticised senior officers and The Home Office for not intervening to stop the wrong practices,
The Interim Report covers the Inquiry’s investigations of SDS police officers and managers between 1968 and 1982 and is intended to set out the history of the unit and to draw conclusions about the purposes for which it was set up and continued, and their justification.
According to the report, the SDS was established in July 1968 with two principal purposes: ‘gathering intelligence which would assist uniformed police handling events at which there was risk of public disorder; and gathering intelligence about numerous individuals and the groups to which many belonged’ (report page 89, paragraph 1).
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In his 110-page report, Sir John Mitting, the Chair of the Public Inquiry, found that the operation of the SDS was flawed in both respects.
In relation to the management of public order, it found that the contribution of the SDS was minimal.
The report said the long-term infiltration of political or single-issue groups by a unit of a police force could readily have been justified if its purpose was to prevent or investigate serious crime, including terrorism and activities akin to it.
The former judge said the great majority of the deployments by the SDS in this period did not satisfy either criterion’
The report is also highly critical of the evidence gathered on individuals and groups.
‘… a remarkable quantity of reports have survived concerning the political activities of groups with no bearing on the threat, if any, which they posed to public order, and on the identity, personal lives and views of individuals….an unknown proportion of them have been kept until the present day.’
The Chair found that ‘this intrusion into the lives of many hundreds of people in this era required cogent justification before it should have been contemplated as a police tactic’ but there was none.
Former High Court judge Sir John Mitting, chair of the Inquiry, said “the end was not justified by the means”.
It deployed undercover officers into groups that were suspected of being involved in public disorder, and that were assessed by the Security Service as having the ability or capacity to threaten the safety and wellbeing of the State.
However, Sir John concluded that most of the groups spied on, which included women’s liberation groups, posed limited risk to public order and no risk to the safety of the State.
He said “it is hard to credit that penetration of or even reporting on these groups could have been thought worthwhile”.
Intelligence gathering involved developing long-term friendships with unsuspecting members of the public and trespassing in their homes.
Sir John said “had the use of these means been publicly known at the time, the SDS would have been brought to a rapid end”. Instead, it continued to operate in secret for another 40 years.
The report found that six undercover officers had sexual relationships with at least 13 women.
Officers entering into sexual relationships with the women they were monitoring was also found by the Inquiry to be a “perennial feature” of the SDS until its closure in 2008.
The report concluded that the actions of this unit were disproportionate and unlawful and it should have been closed down at an early stage.
It did, however, acknowledge that some officers did important work, at personal risk, to gather intelligence to prevent future disorder.
“The chair of the Inquiry found that in this period, ‘the great majority of deployed undercover officers and their operational managers performed their duties conscientiously and in the belief that what they were doing was lawful and in the interests of the public’,” said the MPS.
“However, the report also details unacceptable and immoral behaviour by some undercover officers during this period.
“Their actions have left a legacy of hurt for some and undermined confidence in a vital policing tactic that continues to keep people safe.”
Commander Jon Savell said: “We know that enormous distress has been caused, and I want to take this opportunity to reiterate the apologies made to women deceived by officers into sexual relationships, to the families of deceased children whose identities were used by officers, and to those who suffered a miscarriage of justice because of the actions of SDS officers.
“I want to reassure the public that undercover policing has undergone radical reform over the years, with greater regulation, professional codes of practice, and judicial oversight.
“The way in which undercover policing was conducted in the 1970s bears no relation to how it is conducted today.
“In today’s Met, we are setting clear expectations of all our people to create a Met Londoners can be proud of, and where damaging behaviour such as this is not tolerated.”
The MPS said it was committed to working with the Inquiry to examine the conduct of its undercover officers throughout each stage of the Inquiry, and learning lessons from the findings.
Harriet Wistrich, director of Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “Over 12 years ago I represented eight women deceived into sexual relationships by undercover police officers.
“It was through their tenacity and courage in speaking out that the cover on a dark secret hidden even within the Met Police was blown open.
“This first interim report has yet to examine the many more cases now known about or draw any specific conclusions as to this practice. But it is now clear that had the Met acted lawfully none of these deeply damaging deceitful relationships would have happened at all.
“The Inquiry must now go on to shed further light on the origins of a misogynistic culture that pervades policing today, as exposed in the Baroness Casey review and the phenomenon of police-perpetrated abuse.”
Kate Thomas, a solicitor at Birnberg Peirce, representing the women, said: “Since our clients first exposed these undercover policing units over 12 years ago, they have been fighting to uncover the truth of what happened and to ensure that the police never subject women to this abuse again.
“They continue to request urgent disclosure of all the files that have been kept on them to ensure that the full truth about these operations comes to light.”
The Undercover Policing Inquiry was launched in 2015 and its investigation is split into six tranches. The next public hearings will take place in 2024.
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