He was not the most intellectual guy in the bunch, and when I say that, I mean he didnt really grasp very well complicated political topics, Kirkpatrick said. That is profoundly anti-democratic.. An activist has been awarded 230,000 in compensation after being duped into a relationship with an undercover police officer. Once, in 2006, I believed I saw him. He would always love me, and he would get our life together back on track. Plus, he had a van. Do you remember, he collected them? I struggle to get to Scotland for the new year. Phil's undercover cop wife first hit our screens in 2002, introducing herself initially as Kate Tyler, though it would later transpire that her real name was actually Kate Morton. I am totally reeling, Wilson tweeted. In 2010, Ms Wilson found out he was a married police officer called Mark Kennedy, who had been sent to spy on activists as part of the Met's National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPIOU . But he pulled us out into the cold night. His penis. He was very romantic, and that set the tone for our relationship., Kennedy and Wilson were soon dating. Photo by David Jones/PA Images via Getty Images, Kennedy was involved almost from the start. Will you marry me, Donna? On one knee in the middle of the dancefloor. Hundreds of demonstrators, including former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, gathered outside the Petah Tikva police station to protest against detention of Itzik Medina, the activist who was taken in for questioning. How Ron Stallworth, A Black Undercover Cop, Joined The KKK By Kara Goldfarb | Edited By John Kuroski Published May 16, 2018 Updated June 24, 2020 Ron Stallworth was the first black cadet to join his police division in the 1970s. cited by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, Racism Wasn't a Problem for British Police in the 70s, Says Spy-Cop Who Used Racist Term. Later, he claimed, two FBI agents showed up in the middle of his interview with Berners-Lee. "We are left to regulate it ourselves and we think we do a good job of it," said Murphy today. The court ruled that Kennedy debased, degraded, and humiliated Wilson. Wilson also came into contact with around half a dozen other undercover officers from the NPIOU or its 'sister unit', the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). Did we use contraception? You lived with him for two bloody years.. Twenty of those activists were people who had decided before the raid they would be part of the power plant occupation. And they say the shockwaves of distrust and paranoia he sent into their community destabilized a movement that was on the verge of making a huge political impact. I had twisted my shiny chestnut hair into loose bunches, and an amber bindi winked out from my forehead. I love you, baby Carlo sang. The tribunal found he had had sex with at least 11 women while undercover. Vivid nightmares in which I am about to die at the hand of an unseen assailant. But when he landed in the U.S., Halpin said police pulled him aside and questioned him for hours. Payout for activist tricked into a sexual relationship with undercover was friends with a group of left-wing political activists, mostly in . Secrets and lies: untangling the UK 'spy cops' scandal, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Drug work was black-and-white. 'In entering into a sexual relationship, Kennedy's actions went against the training and guidelines undercover officers received at the time. I only found out recently that she's married and has a husband and 13-year-old twins, Ava and Sara (not their real name) and she's told me she's only with her husband for the children, in an unhappy marriage and that divorce would be seen as shameful in their small local town; Maddie's also a cop as well and well-known in their small town. People he deceived are still rebuilding their lives. The invitation was short on details. I cant take this in. Lisa dialled the number and Kennedy answered the phone. (What they didnt know was that by driving people home after protests, he could gain information about where they lived. VICE World News asked Kennedy for an interview through his LinkedIn page, but he didnt respond to the request. His body hair. Photo: Kate Wilson. Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images, After nearly 10 years of court battles, a legal authority known as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled last September that Wilson had suffered grievous human rights abuses at the hands of Kennedy and the police apparatus that supported him. During his time undercover, when he is said to have become a key organiser, Boyling met a 28-year-old woman and began a relationship with her. In that moment, sitting across from Dr Clifton, I realise how much I want to be Donna, not Andrea. ), Crucially, after Kennedy and Wilson broke things off, Kennedy quickly got into anotherlong-term relationship with a woman who goes in public by the pseudonym Lisa. By October 2018 my case is moving forward well, according to my solicitor, Harriet. It was Carlo whod suggested a party, said we should do it properly, the Scottish way. I never trusted him because he was macho as fuck, Jay Jordan, a climate organizer who worked occasionally with Kennedy during this era, told VICE World News. "Everybody knows there are people in the movement who aren't who they say they are," she said. Chief constable says relationships with targets in environmental movement 'grossly unprofessional', Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Our biannual visits are normally jovial affairs. Kennedy had gone to her dads funeral. A face-to-face confession has confirmed this. Initially nobody outside their circles paid much attention. Senior officers either knew of the relationship, chose not to know of its existence, or were incompetent and negligent., Back in the UK, the Metropolitan Police issued an official apology to Wilson and other activists in 2015. The effect it has on the movement is it makes you doubt everything, he said. Mark Kennedy spent seven years pretending to be a climate activist. When he was later offered a job interview at MIT with Tim Berners-Lee, one of the inventors of the World Wide Web, Halpin figured it might be a good time to leave. Police deal with climate change protesters at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in October 2009. This was not something he would ever announce. But The Guardian reports that it's for real: "A police spy married an activist he met while undercover in the environmental protest movement and then went on to have children with her, The Guardian can reveal. The cafe Ive chosen for my first meeting with Rob Evans is deserted, tables of all shapes and sizes spread over three floors, with mirrors and extravagant lights. To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders, Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications, .css-o3g03s{color:black;}Published8:56,26 January 2022 GMT.css-1aaqh7x{color:#666666;}@media (min-width:1024px){.css-1aaqh7x{color:#666666;}}| Last updated16:19,04 February 2022 GMT. Apartheid protesters convictions quashed in London after 51 years, Lies, spies and dirty tricks: the truth about Britains undercover police, TheGuardian view on the spy cops inquiry: not enough answers, Spycops inquiry delays beyond belief, say women deceived by officers, Police chiefs unaware of undercover officers sexual relationships with women, British BLM group closes down after police infiltration attempt. Well never get through! This sounds like a movie or detective tale. Now the tentacles of his lies are reaching into our home. . The Carlo you knew was not a real person. He wrote her poetry. But as the months and years went on, some climate activists still had trouble putting their faith in him. The case against us collapsed, Chivers said. He wrote to her in affectionate and loving terms. I had to describe what he looked like naked. After decades of police secretly monitoring left-wing activists as if they were potential terrorists, the tribunals judgment could put pressure on law enforcement to actually respect the legitimate political expression of people who want to fix the planet and make society more equal. I wish I could have avoided this revelation for longer. Camberwell, please, mate. He held the door open for me, the distance between us widening to a chasm. Kennedy, using the moniker Mark Stone, had originally been sent to infiltrate the Sumac Centre and spy on activists as part of the Metropolitan Police's National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPIOU). All rights reserved. The Metropolitan Police has agreed to pay 425,000 to a woman who did not know the father of her child was an undercover policeman. He put me down, arms still wrapped around me, looking into my eyes. One day while Kennedy was gone, Lisa began rifling around in their vans glovebox for some sunglasses. They say that the dirty tricks he played, carried out on behalf of a police force hostile to political dissent, hobbled a climate movement whose goal was to prevent death and destruction from an overheated planet. But after that trip to New York, Halpin began to feel targeted by police for his activism. Several months later, Lisa confided her doubts in Jack, who was an amateur expert in genealogical research. Before Kennedys police operation ended, hed had to turn over all the fake documents that police had created for him. In the U.S., a major bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions had collapsed. Within the space of two years, he had gone from being a newcomer at the Sumac Centre to a trusted figure within the UKs radical activist movement. To help explain his generous expense account from the police, he pretended he had previously made a lot of money smuggling cocaine from Pakistan. A large, dark man sat opposite me, brown eyes, big hands, soft lips. And Kennedy was always eager to help out. That has never crossed my mind. Kennedy reportedly finished the gig in a daze and went to bed early. I pause, looking at them both with an unusual seriousness. I am unable to move for a few minutes, shivering in the cold as my brain processes reality versus my dream state. Danny Chivers was one of dozens of people invited to take part in the direct action. People he deceived are still rebuilding their . We accept and recognise the gravity of all of the breaches of Ms. Wilsons human rights as found by the tribunal, it says in a statement provided to VICE World News. The operation is over, it said, according to an activist whom VICE World News has agreed to identify as Jack due to privacy concerns. They gave people until 3 a.m. to decide if they wanted to join. However, the tribunal found that the training was inadequate and more should have been done to consider the risks of male undercover officers forming relationships with women. How a Married Undercover Cop Having Sex With Activists Killed a Climate It was heaving from Tottenham Court Road down. Believing him to be a fellow green activist, the pair developed a relationship, before splitting up in 2005 when she moved to Spain. I sensed he was watching my movements from behind the secretive shades. How Ron Stallworth, A Black Undercover Cop, Joined The KKK - All That's I am furious on three counts: one, I am being forced to undergo this violation; two, I am being forced to see a man and they refuse to allocate a female psychiatrist; three, he is a forensic shrink, not an expert in trauma. I am distant from my family, racked by guilt but incapable of preventing it. He insisted he still needed some distance, but said we could keep seeing each other, maybe a few times a week. He quickly found an attorney, who advised him to go back to Europe. An undercover Metropolitan Police officer proposed to an activist and lived with her for 18 months, the BBC has learned. Kennedy used his undercover budget to buy Wilson gifts, at one point asking his deployment manager for cash to get her a used mountain bike. The Guardian also today fully identifies two of the other undercover officers involved in spying on the eco-activists, previously called Officer A and B. He could be a risk-taker thirsting for excitement, and someone wanting also to seek redemption for past failures., Within a few months of hanging out at the Sumac Centre, Kennedy started focusing his attention on Kate Wilson, a woman in her early 20s who travelled internationally for environmental camps and conferences and knew activists across the world. How a Married Undercover Cop Having Sex With Activists Killed a Climate Movement Mark Kennedy spent seven years pretending to be a climate activist. It is a diversion from what they are there to do. While their legal case moved forward, Kennedy was searching for new jobs in the U.S. Jon Murphy, the chief constable of Merseyside, told the Guardian it was "never acceptable" for undercover officers to sleep with people they were targeting. Undercover officers 'encouraged to sleep with activists' Photo by Nick Stern. Married undercover cop infiltrates - Drew Curtis' Fark.com - Facebook They punched me. I never heard from Carlo again. Danish police showed up and arrested more than 230 people. Its really important if youre stuck in a crowd and somebodys shouting at you to do something or calling you, you need to be able to react, Kennedy told the British broadcaster Channel 4. We all believe this tactic is designed to put other women off suing the police. Was Your Ex-Boyfriend an Undercover Police Spy? Some British Women Don MK also remained in contact with her family after the breakup.. When we left the cinema, he walked ahead and flagged down a taxi. He was in Scotland for the G8. Christmas 2018 passes in a blur of flu. Kennedy, who is in hiding in the US, is also believed to have "outed" a fellow spy an allegation he denies. Mark Kennedy in 2011. He said he was going to visit his brother in the U.S. And then he left. He spent seven years living a double life: He was a fearless organizer who had a shadowy backstory as a cocaine runner, but he was also a cop with a family in Ireland. It listed the dads occupation as police officer. My heart was just racing, Jack said. He is the fourth spy now to have been identified as an undercover police officer engaged in the covert surveillance of eco-activists. The interviewers, two female detectives from the Metropolitan police, are not aggressive in their questioning but it is a very difficult and stressful experience, particularly when Im asked to recount in detail the child sexual abuse that Carlo told me had happened in his family. "In 2003, Kennedy had been sent undercover by an elite unit in London's Metropolitan Police Service to gather intelligence on activists like Wilson. I whooped and everyone turned around to see him lift me off my feet, black tights showing as my swirly dress got caught up in his arms. The tribunal will now be deciding what damages Wilson should receive. It was common practice for undercover officers with the unit to keep their first names. Believing him to be a fellow green activist, the pair developed a relationship, before splitting up in 2005 when she moved to Spain. The first is a. He was controlling peoples ability to organize politically.. Rob tells me he has been meeting with the activists, too; that they first started talking about Carlo back in 2012. But the tribunal couldnt find evidence that the sexual relationships were a deliberate tactic of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. He drove a few of the activists in the planning committee on a scouting mission around the plant. Within the movement, though, Kennedy now had a proven track record as an organizer and the battle scars to prove it. The news of his true identity came at a perilous time for the climate movement. The last time I saw Carlo was in November 2004, late on a Thursday night, outside Regent Street Cinema in central London. Halpin, the U.S. climate organizer who now runs an internet privacy company, was one of the people there. But something didnt sit right with her. Id travelled down on the Bakerloo line alone, planning to meet my trade union comrades at Embankment. Steve is now a senior trade union official. Nym was recently valued at around $270 million. Theyd been together for years at that point. Its only been four years! I laugh. The prosecution hadnt made it known in court that the arrests were due to an undercover officer. Not being broken. In the days and weeks after my ABE and Sweeney interviews, I become heightened, sleepless, agitated and distracted. It was still a monumental event. He was Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer working with the Metropolitan Police Force. Thinking about how I found out that she was pregnant while we were together. Israeli police detained and quickly released an activist from the pro-democracy protest movement Monday evening. He was a nice guy, super friendly, really easy to get along with, said Jason Kirkpatrick, a climate activist who first met Kennedy around this time, and is working on a documentary about undercover policing called Spied Upon. "Being too paranoid would hinder everything. I describe the expensive dinners, generous gifts and Carlos treasured motorbike. I had received a letter, a short, formal note explaining the process and giving the details of when the interview would take place. The Metropolitan Police isnt disputing the judgment. When Halpin returned to England, he got stopped at the border and interrogated as if he were a terrorist. He was sent by the state to spy on my friends., I hadnt done anything. That sounds interesting, Chivers thought. Later, at a legal meeting, one of the other women duped by an undercover officer tells me that she felt close to breaking when the police wrote requesting she go through another assessment. Eco activist, 41, who was deceived into relationship with a married We order coffees, then set about excavating my past. She gets a bookkeeping job with a criminal cartel but her cover is blown just as she discovers the . Carlo? my mum splutters. Undercover policeman Jim Boyling married an activist and allegedly told her about other undercover operatives. Photo by Nick Stern. But several months later, he suddenly reappeared back in England. This would be a convenient way to explain his frequent disappearances. I want to say no, but some small voice tells me to go along. My mum and sister have gone overboard on presents, worry pulsating out of them. Undercover policeman married activist after revealing identity. Portugal, if we went on holiday. A police officer stood in the middle of the room, according to an account of the event in Undercover. But I looked fit and healthy, like Id been on a spa break. He taught her to drive his van and let her use it when he was away., Mark Kennedy even went to Kate Wilson's grandmother's 90th birthday party. He bought her gifts. They live in the rainiest part of the UK, and Ive moved to the corner with the most sun. He said he chose the last name Stone more or less at random because it sounded neutral. An acquaintance told me he was in Italy now and he certainly hadnt developed a penchant for German death metal. I am still trying to work it out. Though Kennedys work doesnt appear to have resulted in any notable cases, it caught the attention of his superiors. VICE World News spoke with more than half a dozen people closely involved with the UK climate movement who came in contact with Mark Stone during the 2000s. To this day Im fighting a multi-jurisdictional court battle to get my name cleared, for Christs sake, he said. I nod. I tell her about the rape interview, as I call it. I unknowingly got involved with a married cop now she doesn't want to As 2018 passes to 2019, I clink whisky glasses with my family and think back on that Hogmanay when Carlo proposed. He sure looks like a dirty hippy. Stratfor didnt respond to a media request from VICE World News about these emails. Simon Hattenstone Fri 25 Mar 2011 20.03 EDT Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email There are two distinct images of Mark Kennedythat have emerged in the press. Funnier, warmer, weaker? Using not only fake names but entirely fabricated personas, their husbands infiltrated political campaign groups for years at a time, posing as anti-war, anti-racist, environmentalist, and human rights campaigners, among many other guises. This really has derailed my life., She smiles at the understatement and asks: Do you think youll drop your anonymity at some point?. An undercover police officer who began a relationship with a woman he was spying on went on to marry her after revealing his true . The plan was for activists to slash holes in the fence, run inside the coal plant, and temporarily force the plant to close. Dan introduced him, the dark stranger who hadnt said a word. The woman was married to Jim Boyling, a serving Metropolitan police officer who spent five years living undercover with environmental campaigners between 1995 and 2000. It does not matter any more. In 2003, Kennedy had been sent undercover by an elite unit in Londons Metropolitan Police Service to gather intelligence on activists like Wilson. Kennedy was also present. She smiles at me, asks how things have been since we last spoke. In the lead-up to the assessment, I feel an anxious, heavy dread. Told her a ruling from seniors that undercover operatives should not have sex with targets was unrealistic, and developing relationships with activists was "a necessary tool in maintaining cover". Something like hope, or power. They were getting older and dropping out. Undercover policeman married activist after revealing identity On 9 October, I attend an Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) interview at Folkestone police station. It contained a note saying he would always love me and a gift voucher for the Sanctuary Spa in Covent Garden. She found an iPhone and it contained emails addressed to dad.. We sit in a rare familial silence, the pair of them flicking through their books, not really taking in any words. "Sometimes things go wrong, it is a volatile area of police work.". Carlo was everything I wanted in a partner. In 2018, Halpin founded a company called Nym that uses blockchain technology to protect users from online surveillance. I was engaged to an undercover police officer - everything in the Halpin was a young, radical computer scientist working on a graduate degree who was involved with the Climate Camp movement. He joined the Metropolitan Police in his 20s, and in 1999 he completed a course that trained officers how to go undercover to bust drug dealers. As Wilson fell in love with someone she knew as Mark Stone, Kennedy the cop was filing reports about her back to his superiors. Environmental campaigner Kate Wilson met Mark Kennedy in Nottingham back in 2003. His old friends were confused about how everything had gone down but happy hed returned. What are you saying, Donna?, What Im saying is that Carlo was not a locksmith. I couldnt take my eyes off him. On January 19, the Guardian revealed the latest details of. By then, Wilson had served the required role for Kennedys mission. He had chosen to move out while I was at work, turning up in his estate car to clear out his belongings. In our view, the true position is closer to being one of Dont ask, dont tell.. I was beaten, Halpin said. But his friends, comrades, and at least 10 other women he had sex with had no idea Kennedy was selling them out to governments and corporations that had a vested interest in keeping the country hooked on fossil fuels. In a 2018 Guardian article she said, I want to know how high up the police hierarchy knowledge of the abuses went., Last September, after nearly 10 years of court battles, Kate Wilson won a tribunal case for breaches of her human rights. A week later I am obliged to attend another psychiatric assessment the Met have insisted on, at the Maudsley hospital in Camberwell, south London. We were able to get it overturned., Danny Chivers, second from right, was one of six defendants whose charges were dropped in Nottingham Crown Court in 2011, following revelations about Kennedy infiltrating the climate movement. Kennedy with his bandthe 69ersperforms at his own 40th birthday in 2009. Kennedy was part of a team tasked with making that happen. Its September 2015 and my mum and my sister have come by train from Scotland to visit me at home on the Kent coast, hoping to catch the last of the autumn heat. I explain that Ive met a couple of women from the original case and they have put me in touch with the human rights solicitor Harriet Wistrich. I try to tell Rob how it feels. I had first noticed Carlo on Piccadilly, leaning against the railings of St Jamess Park, on the edge of the slow-moving crowd. As she asks it, a feeling rushes through me. The Kennedy news, Chivers said, was another gut punch. It was part of this great sucking-out of energy when we needed to stay strong, he said. I still have trouble travelling and I run a multinational company., It pains him to think what climate activists in the UK and elsewhere could have achieved without Kennedy and other cops undermining them from within. "It is grossly unprofessional. There was this loud banging on the door, and suddenly hundreds of police officers stormed the building, he said. That probably cost the climate change movement years of organizing.. At Dr Cliftons office, I sit across from her, the room warm, comforting, so different from Sweeneys. An activist detained in Hong Kong has begun his final appeal seeking recognition for his same-sex marriage registered overseas, in a landmark case for the city's LGBTQ+ community. All rights reserved. This book, I say to both of them. That got some climate activists thinking: What if they made camps like this a regular thing? However, a Global Open representative told the Guardian it had never employed the former cop. Photo by John Giles/PA Images via Getty Images. They didnt know faking a downward mental spiral and abruptly disappearing were standard training for undercover officers ending their deploymentalthough in Kennedys case, some of the anguish may have been genuine, Jack and other activists later speculated. Her shouts of joy as he wrapped an arm around me. Eventually I wake and I am screaming, soaked in sweat.