Undercover Agents Infiltrated Activist Groups, Established Relationships and Fathered ChildrenBy Michaela Whitton The unprecedented apology and admittance of abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong behaviour by the Met comes four years after the women launched legal action against the force. Since the exposure of undercover police officer Mark Kennedy in 2009, evidence that the Metropolitan Police sanctioned officers to sleep with targets has mounted. Kennedy spent seven years living as eco-activist Mark Stone after infiltrating a close-knit group of environmental activists. Despite being married, those in the movement claim the undercover cop had numerous sexual relationships over the years, which were a systematic means of gathering intelligence. Another undercover officer, Bob Lambert, had relationships with four women while pretending to be an animal rights and environmental activist in the 1980s. Some of the abusive and indefensible relationships which targeted political movements in the U.K. bore children. On Friday, Police chiefs released a statement apologising unreservedly to the seven women who were deceived into forming abusive and manipulative long-term relationships with undercover officers. Undisclosed, substantial amounts of compensation have also been paid those duped into the immoral and intimate relationships with undercover spies some lasting up to nine years. On Friday, the Metropolitan Police Service published the full apology after it was given to the seven women in person. Thanks in large part to the courage and tenacity of these women in bringing these matters to light it has become apparent that some officers, acting undercover whilst seeking to infiltrate protest groups, entered into long-term intimate sexual relationships with women which were abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong, Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said, as part of the settlement. I acknowledge that these relationships were a violation of the womens human rights, an abuse of police power and caused significant trauma. I unreservedly apologise on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service. I am aware that money alone cannot compensate the loss of time, their hurt or the feelings of abuse caused by these relationships, he added. The statement acknowledged that the women were deceived and suffered gross privacy violations in a situation that may well have reflected attitudes towards women that should have no part in the culture of the Metropolitan Police. It saidofficers preyed on the womens good nature and manipulated their emotions gratuitously and added that the subsequent trauma and secrecy left the women at risk of further abuse and deception by the officers, even after the deployment ended. Responding to the apology, the women said: No amount of sorry, or financial compensation, can make up for what we and others have endured, we are pleased the police have been forced to acknowledge the abusive nature of these relationships and that they should never happen. The relationships which span a period of nearly 25 years had remained hidden until they begun to be exposed by a series of media reports in 2010. By linking the cases together, a clear pattern of abusive and discriminatory behaviour towards women was revealed, which pointed to institutionalised sexism by the Metropolitan Police. Police Spies Out of Peoples Lives, a support group for legal action against the sinister policing methods, said: While the UK purports to be a democratic country, the level of deception perpetrated by state agents seeking to undermine movements for social change is more akin to that of the Stasi in East Germany. These professionally supported relationships some of which bore children lasted as long as nine years and have remained hidden from the public for decades. Indeed, the police still refuse to publicly acknowledge the harm caused to the children born of and into these relationships or even bring themselves to refer to them in their apology today. Substantial financial settlements made to seven of the women mean they are now unable to take the matter forward to open court. However, one has refused the settlement, and her fight to obtain disclosure and have the legal framework governing Britains undercover policing examined by the courts will continue. This article (Scotland Yard Apologises For Undercover Relationships with selfnewss) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Michaela Whitton andtheAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, emailedits@theantimedia.org. Disgusting! ThankYou selfnews Post for telling us the truth, on how low governments are prepared to go. Now its clear why the so called green movement was not able to better the world! Unfortunately they will get away with it. They got away with protecting Jimmy Savill for decades and hushing up all the evidence against establishment pedo rings. One upon a time the Environmental movement was part of the Left. However, the FBI infiltrated and split the movement in two. I find myself often wanting to hit my head against a wall when I hear environmentalists claim that the Environmental Movement is neither Left not Right. Yes, it is. As long as there is profit to be made to pollute the earth, it will be polluted, as long as there is money to be made from pouching rhinos, they will be pouched to extinction. This is the nature of Capitalism. Unless you remove the profit margin, this earth is doomed. For those who think the Ruling Class are wise, look at Easter Island. 