For years, Helen believed she had found a true partner in John Barker. A fellow Greenpeace activist, he seemed as committed as she was to tackling the climate crisis. They moved in together, spoke about having children, and built a life. Then, after two years, John’s behaviour suddenly became erratic. One day, without warning, he left, telling her he needed to sort his head out.
Nearly two decades later, Helen learned the shocking truth – John Barker never existed. He was, in fact, an undercover Metropolitan Police officer, assigned to infiltrate activist groups by building intimate relationships with unsuspecting women.
“This isn’t an accident or an isolated case of a rogue officer, as they first tried to portray it,” Helen said. “This is institutional sexism being handed from officer to officer – how to deceive women into relationships and use them for cover, for sex, or whatever purpose they were using us for.”
Helen is one of five women who speak out in a new ITV documentary exposing the full scale of the Spycops scandal, which saw officers embed themselves in progressive political groups – stealing the identities of deceased children to create new aliases, fathering children with activists, and vanishing when their cover was at risk.
Taking place over more than 40 years, from 1968 to at least 2010, the operation is now the subject of a decade-long public inquiry that has already cost £88m and is due to conclude in 2026.
Speaking to reporters at the Bafta institution, Helen said: “We originally started as eight women who dated five officers, a period spanning 25 years. That really shows the systematic nature of it.
“Now, through the public inquiry, we know there are at least 60 women and we don’t even have all the cover names of the officers. This is a really serious problem that does need tackling, and we hope that this documentary helps raise the profile of the issue.”
For Alison, the first signs something was wrong came when she found a bank card in her partner’s jacket pocket. It had a different name on it – Mark Jenner.
From 1995 to 2000, she had been in love with Mark Cassidy, a joiner from Birkenhead. He had told her a tragic story about his childhood – his parents had died, he had no family left – which explained why she never met any of them.
Alison captured their life together on film: home videos, family weddings, holidays. He had lied to her grandmother about his background, played with her nieces and nephews, and had been in the front row of her mother’s wedding photos. Then one day, he disappeared.
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Through her own investigations, Alison discovered that Mark Cassidy was in fact a police officer working for the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad. He had a wife and children. It is believed he had been tasked with spying on the Colin Roach Centre, an organisation that campaigned against police corruption and promoted trade union and anti-fascist politics.
The public inquiry has since uncovered that more than 1,000 political groups were infiltrated by undercover officers – ranging from the anti-Vietnam War movement and the black power movement to trade unions and left-leaning legal groups.
Lisa met Mark Stone through her work as an environmental campaigner. Over six years, he became a central part of her life. He went on holidays with her family, attended her father’s funeral, and was a devoted partner.
But during a trip to the Dolomites in 2010, she made a horrifying discovery. Inside his van’s glovebox, she found a passport with a different name – Mark Kennedy. On his phone, she found emails from two children who called him “Dad”.
It was Lisa’s discovery that blew the Spycops scandal wide open. The fallout led to the collapse of a major trial, quashing the convictions of activists who had been prosecuted for conspiring to break into the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.
As more information emerged, the revelations grew even more explosive. The Guardian reported on the officers’ systematic deception, but it was whistleblower Peter Francis who changed everything – exposing how police had spied on the campaign for justice for Stephen Lawrence, the Black teenager murdered by racists in 1993.
In response, then-home secretary Theresa May announced a public inquiry in 2015, calling the revelations “profoundly shocking and disturbing”.
Due to air on three Thursdays on ITV1 and ITVX, The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed will see five women speaking on camera for the first time, hoping to ensure that the abuses they suffered are never repeated.
The inquiry has faced intense criticism for its delays, with long gaps between hearings. The next phase of evidence will not be heard until this autumn.
“We’re hoping this documentary shows the depth and breadth of what has been done to us over decades of deception by people who were lying and continue to lie,” one woman said.
“We got involved because we want to make sure it never happens again, and we hope people who see it will make that change,” Alison added.
Once the inquiry has concluded, the findings will be presented to the home secretary, although the women have been warned this is unlikely to be until 2026. The interim report for the first section of the inquiry found that undercover tactics were unjustified in many cases.
The documentary is produced by RAW, the team behind The Tinder Swindler, The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman, and American Nightmare.
Jo Clinton-Davis, ITV’s controller of factual programming, said: “When I first learned about this story, I was determined it needed to be made for a TV audience – and made for ITV.
“That these five women finally agreed to give ITV and RAW up-close and personal access is testament to their courage and resilience.
“They have been up against a state-sponsored operation, and with many of them turning detective, such a twist in the story could be the stuff of a thriller – except this is all too shockingly true. It’s a British scandal of real significance.”
The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed airs on Thursday 6th, 13th & 20th March, 9pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV & STV Player.
