Three women who were married to undercover police officers in the UK are demanding answers. The women are part of an ongoing inquiry into the activities of over 100 undercover police who reportedly infiltrated numerous left-wing groups in the country for decades.
The women are fighting back and stating that they have suffered tremendous stress that led to the breakdown of their marriages following the activities of their partners while they were deployed. Each of these three women were married to their husbands when the men went undercover, and they were devastated to learn of the affairs their husbands had, one of which resulted in a child being born.
While the Metropolitan Police have apologized to women who unknowingly had relationships with the police officers while they were undercover, they have not apologized to the wives. "[They] cannot understand why they have not received one too," the wives said in a statement. "They sacrificed so many aspects of their lives for the Metropolitan police and not once has anyone from the police acknowledged, let alone apologised for, what has been done to them and their families."
The women's statement continues:
"Their sacrifices went way beyond those they had willingly taken on, and have had a shattering impact on each of their lives (and that of their wider families) as they have come to learn something of the reality of their husbands' roles. This has cost each of them their marriage and had a profound ongoing psychological impact."
The women were each subsequently wrecked when they discovered their own marriages were built on foundations of lies.
"Years later they found out that their marriages were based on lies, that their husbands' jobs — of which they had been so proud — had been vehicles for the worst kind of infidelity."
The wives also state that while they knew their husbands were undercover, they never imagined that the men were engaging in sexual relationships with other women.
"None of them had any idea that in the name of policing their husbands were having sexual relationships with other women."
The women also emphasize that the Metropolitan Police led the women to believe their husbands were "infiltrating serious and violent criminals or extremists," but in reality they were actually infiltrating protesters who posed no serious threat to the police or the UK in general.
This intentional deception, and the way their husbands took advantage of both the trust of their wives and their own power, is the root of why the wives are so crushed and outraged.
"When the women found out the truth about the groups their husbands infiltrated, they were horrified as this was at odds with the picture that had been painted to them."
One of the women is Jennifer Francis, who previously waived her right to remain anonymous. Her husband, Peter Francis, came out as a whistleblower against the Metropolitan Police after revealing the police spied on the family of Stephen Lawrence, who was killed by racists in 1993. Peter Francis also revealed that the police orchestrated a smear campaign against Stephen Lawrence's family.
Peter also revealed that he had two sexual relationships with women who did not know he was an undercover police officer. Despite that admission, his lawyer insists he should not be prosecuted in this new case levied by his ex-wife and others as he "has already paid a very high price for his openness about the time when he served as an undercover police officer."
Indeed, Peter's revelations from 2010 are quite disturbing. He explained that during his deployment from 1993 to 1997, "My role was to provide intelligence about protests and demonstrations, particularly those that had the potential to become violent. In doing so, the campaigns I was associated with lost much of their effectiveness, a factor that ultimately hastened their demise."
In 2015, Martin Hewitt, an assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, issued a statement to the women who unknowingly entered into relationships with the undercover police:
"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."
"I acknowledge that these relationships were a violation of the women's 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.
"Most importantly, relationships like these should never have happened. They were wrong and were a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity."
The statement was in response to the women's efforts to make the police officer's roles known:
"Although 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.
"By linking our cases together we have been able to evidence a clear pattern of abusive, discriminatory behaviour towards women which amounts to institutional sexism by the Metropolitan police."
