Page 34
Ex-police
spy faces
probe for
‘deceitful
liaisons’
Undercover: Kennedy as ‘Mark Stone’‘Relationship
lasted six years’A former undercover
police officer is being inves-
tigated for deceiving
women into sexual rela-
tionships while conducting
a covert operation.
mark Kennedy, who spent
seven years infiltrating envi-
ronmental groups, is being
investigated over whether he
conducted ‘inappropriate sex-
ual relationships’ and broke
the official Secrets Act by
leaking information.
Kennedy went by the name
mark Stone while posing as a
Left-wing environmental activist
in a number of groups such as
the Camp for Climate Action,
which disbanded in 2011.
He formed a number of intimate
relationships – including one
managers were aware he had
deceived one activist, named
Kate Wilson, into a sexual rela-
tionship – and that they had
allowed it to continue.
following the revelations, sen-
ior officers drew up rules insist-
ing that police having intimate
relationships while undercover
were unacceptable unless there
was ‘an immediate threat to
themselves or others’.
Kennedy was one of about 140
officers who had been involved in
spying on more than 1,000 politi-
cal groups since 1968.
The investigation into Kennedyand his former unit, codenamed
operation montrose, began in
January 2015 and is led by the
National Police Chiefs’ Council
(NPCC) and conducted by the
metropolitan Police.
Kennedy’s unit, the National
Public order Intelligence Unit,
infiltrated various movements
between 1999 and 2011. The unit
was later closed down following
the revelations about Kennedy
and some of his colleagues.
At least 20 undercover officers
from Kennedy’s unit and another,
the Special Demonstration
Squad, are known to have hadintimate sexual relationships
while using their fake identities
between the mid-1970s and 2010,
the Guardian reported.
At least 12 female victims have
been awarded compensation.
A number of cases were exam-
ined by the Crown Prosecution
Service, which decided in 2014
that none would be prosecuted
for sexual misconduct.
It is not clear why Kennedy is
now being investigated after this
previous decision.
The NPCC said it could not com-
ment at this stage, as operation
montrose was a live investigation.By George Odling
which lasted six years – without
telling the women involved that
he was a spy. His bed-hopping
activities provoked a tidal wave
of legal action and a multi-mil-
lion pound compensation bill
after he was unmasked in 2010.
The Crown Prosecution Service
decided in 2014 that he would
not be prosecuted for sexual mis-
conduct. But police confirmed
an unnamed individual has now
been interviewed under caution,
with six others as witnesses.
Police have previously admit-
ted that Kennedy deceived four
female environmental activists
into long-term relationships
which were ‘abusive and manipu-
lative’. The women were awarded
compensation by Scotland Yard.
Police also conceded that his
(^) Daily Mail, Thursday, August 29, 2019
and when we got married, with Tim
joining Jamie as my other best man,
I had John’s childhood companion
Strawbod poking out of my jacket
pocket. Ten inches of well-worn
teddy bear with beady, brown eyes
and a badly-knitted scarf — the
handiwork of a nine-year-old John
— he remains a little part of my twin
and has pride of place in the cabinet
of curiosities, that jumble of memen-
toes of my life.
my love of Ange has somehow
broken the ‘spell’ that this was an
untouchable shrine and we have
added new trinkets — a metal blue
tit bought in Kew Gardens after a
midsummer walk, drawings by the
children, a green and yellow sea
anemone beach-combed by Paros
on that recent trip to the island after
which he was named.
Today it feels so much brighter and
more positive, a breath of fresh air
wafting through and brightening
every nook and cranny, and I no
longer feel the intense anger of the
time, just an immense, unhealing
bruise of sadness.
I am also grateful that, unlike so
many others, I was not sent to an
early grave by my broken heart,
although I came close on leaving the
hospital on the day of John’s death.
That night I lay on my bed and felt
myself falling deeper and deeper into
a black hole, the ceiling getting fur-
ther and further away until I awoke
with an almighty intake of breath.
I realised that, 14 hours after John
had passed away, I had been willing
myself to die too. I was furious with
myself and with Dr S and his cronies,
but I was also determined that I
wouldn’t let John down, determined
that I would care for our mother,
determined that I would live.
■ Diary Of a Lone Twin by David
Loftus is published by Bluebird,
£16.99. © David Loftus. To order a
copy for £13.60 call 0844 571 0640.
P&P free on orders over £15. Offer
valid until 10/09/2019.
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