Prosecutors weigh charges against 12 former officers in spycops scandal
The UK's Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to bring criminal charges against 12 former undercover police officers linked to the spycops scandal. The case follows an investigation into Mark Kennedy, who deceived several women into relationships while concealing his identity as a police spy.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is reviewing a file of evidence concerning 12 former police officers who may have committed wrongdoing during undercover operations targeting political groups. Prosecutors are weighing whether to authorise charges of misconduct in public office, though details of the alleged offences remain undisclosed.
The review stems from a police probe into Mark Kennedy, an undercover officer who spent six years infiltrating environmental and leftwing groups. Kennedy is a central figure in the spycops scandal, having deceived multiple women into intimate relationships while hiding his true role as a police spy. The exact number of women affected is unknown but believed to be in double figures.
A decades-long pattern
Kennedy was one of 139 undercover officers who spied on tens of thousands of mostly leftwing activists over more than 40 years. Should the CPS proceed with charges against any of the 12 officers, it would mark the first time an undercover officer faces prosecution for conduct not authorised by superiors.
The scandal, spanning from 1968 to at least 2010, has exposed widespread misconduct, including officers deceiving women into sexual relationships, giving false testimony in court under fake identities, and assuming the identities of deceased children.
Between 2003 and 2009, Kennedy posed as a long-haired, tattooed activist to infiltrate groups such as Earth First! and Climate Camp while working for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. His real identity was exposed in 2010 by a campaigner known as Lisa Jones, with whom he had a six-year relationship.
An internal police probe, Operation Montrose, launched in 2015, examined Kennedy's conduct alongside that of other officers. The National Police Chiefs' Council confirmed it forwarded evidence on Kennedy and 11 other officers to the CPS.
Another activist, Kate Wilson, who had a two-year relationship with Kennedy, won a landmark tribunal ruling in 2021 finding that police had grossly violated her human rights. Judges found Kennedy's superiors either knew of the relationship or were negligent in failing to notice clear signs of it. Surveillance records showed police closely tracked Wilson's personal life during the relationship. Kennedy's lawyer declined to comment.
