New disclosures show managers knew about undercover sexual relationship

The papers were from a civil claim made against the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) by Kate Wilson, who had a sexual relationship with Mr Kennedy not knowing he was an undercover officer.  

The Guardian says the documents reportedly show that Mr Kennedy’s cover officers were also “aware that he was conducting a close personal relationship” with the claimant.  

The MPS previously said that the “forming of a sexual relationship by an undercover officer would never be authorised in advance” in an apology to the woman, who said she had been affected by the deceptive relationships.  

On October 3, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal will consider an application by the MPS and NPCC to vary previous disclosure orders made. 

However, a MPS spokesperson said it “would be inappropriate to comment at this stage on whether any parts of the claim have been conceded”. 

Ms Wilson had a two-year relationship with Mr Kennedy – who used the alias Mark Stone – between 2003 and 2005. It has been alleged Mr Kennedy had numerous sexual relations with different women as part of his covert role.  

He is one of more than 140 officers now known to have led double lives to infiltrate political activism groups in the past 50 years, according to the Undercover Policing Inquiry. 

Following the discovery, the claimant said in a statement: “It has taken me eight painful years to discover that managing officers really did conspire to deceive and abuse me, something the police had consistently denied. 

“The wider questions for society here are massive, this is about institutional sexism, senior police officers sanctioning sexual abuse, and the systematic violation of human rights because of political beliefs, and we still don’t have the whole truth.” 

Ms Wilson was awarded compensation by the High Court in 2016 after the MPS withdrew from the case. 

The force has settled a number of other cases prior to that, but Ms Wilson was the first person to see the MPS drop its defence.  

She said that the event has had “a deep and long lasting” effect on her psychological wellbeing and that she “was abused by an undercover police officer who was sent into my life, into my home, into my parents’ home, and into my bed, by the Metropolitan Police.” 

The force spokesperson added: “Wider issues relating to the historical work, deployment and actions of officers within the now-disbanded Special Demonstration Squad and National Public Order Intelligence Unit will be fully explored and scrutinised by the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI). 

“The MPS is providing every assistance so the Inquiry can fully address the key issues it has identified and can fulfil its terms of reference. 

“The MPS has made clear its position on long-term, sexual relationships known to have been entered into by some undercover officers in the past. Those relationships were wrong and should not have happened.”