Helen Steel with John Dines
“Deep Deception: The story of the spycops network by the women who uncovered the shocking truth” by ‘Alison’, ‘Belinda’, Helen Steel, ‘Lisa’ and ‘Naomi’. London: Ebury Spotlight: 2022. ISBN: 9781529108316. 386 pages hardback.
Like many people, I read the startling stories of women who were deceived by undercover police officers who went on to have to intimate relationships with their political targets as the stories were gradually uncovered, in the newspapers. Most readers would have been shocked and angered by the actions of police officers which shattered the lives of the women involved. This extraordinary and powerful book of testimonies by five of the women shines a brilliant spotlight on the role of the police, their utter contempt for the women they used and abused, and the devastating effects on individual lives.
When the manipulative actions of the police began to be revealed, solely due to the bravery of the women, it was initially passed off as rogue officers. However the determination, resilience and perseverance of the women led to a slowly developing pattern of male police officers who used their relationships with women as part of their surveillance of perceived radical groups. This was very obviously not a case of rotten apples but a pre-conceived policy to purposefully inveigle trust from women who were seen as a disposable resource and a means of gathering intelligence with scant regard for the physical and mental well-being of the targets.
The key spycops involved in this scandal were: Bob Robinson (real name Bob Lambert); John Barker (real name John Dines); Mark Cassidy (real name Mark Jenner); Mark Stone (Mark Kennedy). There will indubitably have been others.
The remarkable detail that the spycops went to in order to establish their credentials is at times staggering. Each of these women are intelligent, they are not easily duped or blinded by love. They were deceived by the most elaborate of state agents who had created a completely convincing deep cover persona that fooled even the most cynical and hardened of activists. The lies told were astonishing and the brutal abrupt endings to relationships / surveillance were breathtakingly cruel.
The tenacity of the women to track down the men they had loved and then who abruptly disappeared are the keystones of this book. The book opens with the story of Belinda who was not really an activist at all but was targeted as a way to gain access to campaigners she knew. The testimonies of Helen Steel and Alison are remarkably similar stories until they finally met each other in 2003 and started to understand how their life stories had intertwined. It was that same year, 2003, that Lisa’s story starts; she was an environmental activist living in Leeds when she met a man called Mark Stone. In the same Cornerstone housing cooperative in Leeds, Naomi knew Lisa and also began a relationship with Mark Stone. At this stage, the book really does become hypnotic and difficult to put down as the depths of the police subterfuge become at times wincingly painful even to read.
The threads of the stories come together to start to reveal a network of undercover police officers based at the Special Demonstration Squad, part of Special Branch and the Metropolitan Police. The idea that undercover police officers could not only have sexual relationships with the women they were essentially grooming, but also develop long standing relationship and even have children together, as in the case of Jim Sutton, is difficult to comprehend even after the truths were exposed.
Among the grimmest stories was Helen Steel’s revelation about a woman called Rosa who was one of Jim Sutton’s victims. Rosa actually realised that Jim was an undercover police office but was manipulated and gaslighted by the most odious methods as she tried to believe his expressed contrition, became pregnant and was mentally abused to abandon her previous life to marry him … though he was still in the police force at that time. It was all about power and control.
One interesting aside throughout the book is the role of the legal team, including the very positive contribution of Keir Starmer who was one of the first legal to believe and support the women.
Stories about the spycops had begun to appear on Indymedia and in 2010 a trial of campaigners involved in the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station collapsed after the Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges rather than have to reveal evidence of undercover officers. The Guardian wrote about Mark Kennedy (Mark Stone) and the media began to quickly unveil the nature of spycops and the breadth of its operations.
After the public exposure of the undercover police actions in 2010, the victims, rather than finally seeing justice, were then faced with media intrusion, public scepticism at their naivity and anger at the cost of the collapsed trials and investigations, as well as vicious attacks by right wing journalists. Mark Kennedy (Stone) even sold his story to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, using Max Clifford as his agent.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) became involved in 2010 and in December 2011 proceedings began against the Metropolitan Police for sexual and psychological abuse. This meant the women had to go through psychological testing and again had their character repeatedly questioned. The Met finally admitted that Mark Kennedy was a police officer until 2010 but denied liability for his actions.
The final part of the book details the protracted legal battles against a police service that sought to hold hearings in secret, and myriad delaying and denial actions. Only in 2015, after several years, did the police offer to apologise and pay compensation on the proviso that the women could continue to campaign for the whole truth of the undercover policing exploitation of women.
The testimonies clarify the nature and impact of the exploitative relationships and gross abuse of power.
The Undercover Policing Public Inquiry has faced several delays and is not expected to be completed until 2024 at the earliest.
The five women who write this book are a small representation of the women who were cruelly, and often illegally, deceived. The scale of the police operation and their victims may never be fully revealed. Alison, Belinda, Helen, Lisa and Naomi were victims of the spycops, but their strength and survival means they have ultimately emerged triumphant. Their bravery and determination has uncovered a web of deceit that even the most cynical observer of police behaviour would have struggled to accept. Deep Cover is not only an extraordinary and at times heartbreaking book, but is destined to become a significant resource in challenging police accountability and behaviour.
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