Undercover police officer lied to spycops inquiry about sexual relationship

An undercover police officer who infiltrated leftwing and animal rights campaign groups appears to have lied to the spycops inquiry when he claimed he did not have a sexual relationship as part of his deployment.

The officer who used the fake name Dave Evans had originally testified that he did not have any relationships while using his fake identity.

But this week, he was forced to admit to the inquiry that he did have a relationship with a woman that lasted at least six months. Under questioning, he said it was “possible” that it could have continued for two years, but could not recall how long.

Evans made the admission after campaigners drew evidence of the relationship to the attention of the spycops inquiry.

A central issue of the inquiry is how the undercover officers frequently had sexual relations with women, but did not disclose to them their true identities. Four of the spies fathered, or are alleged to have fathered, children with women they met while working undercover.

Evans was one of about 139 undercover officers who were sent by their police superiors to spy on tens of thousands of mainly leftwing activists over more than four decades. He infiltrated the Socialist Workers party and animal rights groups including London Animal Action between 1998 and 2005.

In his first statement to the inquiry signed four years ago, he wrote: “I did not engage in any sexual activity whilst in my undercover identity.”

But in a second statement that he signed this year, he admitted that “with the benefit of hindsight”, he should have disclosed that he had a relationship with a woman known as Olivia.

He made the admission after the inquiry had been told about his relationship with Olivia by campaigners. This evidence was mainly supplied by Helen Steel, a social justice campaigner who was a defendant in the celebrated McLibel case.

Steel was herself deceived into a two-year relationship by another undercover officer, John Dines. She spent 18 years searching for Dines; at one point senior police officers spent £2.5m of public funds to relocate him to ensure that she did not find him.

Evans was asked by Don Ramble, a barrister at the inquiry, if he had lied in his first statement. He replied:”I accept that it was not completely truthful with hindsight.”

He said he had not originally disclosed the relationship to the inquiry “because she was not an activist nor part of any target group, I did not feel this was relevant”.

During his covert deployment, Evans pretended to be a landscape gardener as part of his false persona. He met Olivia in 1998 when he attended a college course in his fake identity. At no point did he reveal to her that he was actually a police officer.

The inquiry heard evidence that Evans and Olivia together attended social events with animal rights campaigners and at least one demonstration. Olivia is not giving evidence to the inquiry.

The spycops inquiry has been scrutinising wide-ranging wrongdoing committed by undercover officers. The government is considering whether the remaining stages of the inquiry, which has been running for more than a decade, should continue in a different format.

Victims of the surveillance however say that any move to cut short the inquiry would result in a cover-up.