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Met finally admits spycop's managers knew of relationship

THE Metropolitan Police have finally admitted that a notorious spycop’s managers knew he deceived a woman into an intimate relationship and did not stop it, legal documents have revealed.

As an officer in the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, Mr Kennedy – using the name Mark Stone – infiltrated dozens of groups in a seven-year stint, during which time he duped environmental activist Kate Wilson into a two-year sexual relationship.

Now, for the first time, police chiefs have confessed to knowing that Mr Kennedy’s “cover officers and line manager” acquiesced in his sexual relationship with Ms Wilson.

The Met have also acknowledged that the relationship with Ms Wilson breached her human rights, including her right to live without torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, her right to privacy and her right to freedom of expression and association.

Ms Wilson was one of eight women who brought a legal case against the police over the use of intimate relationships by its undercover officers, which resulted in the Met issuing an unprecedented public apology for the “abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong” relationships.

She is currently bringing a further case against the Met and the National Police Chiefs’ Council at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, where the Met filed papers containing the extraordinary admissions.

Ms Wilson said today: “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.

“The police should not be allowed to evade the serious questions this case raises. Until we have a proper court hearing that examines the evidence, they will always be able to lie.”

Her case is next due before the tribunal on October 3, when the Met are expected to appeal against an order to disclose official documents relating to Mr Kennedy’s relationship with Ms Wilson –and the extent to which senior officers were aware of it.

Ms Wilson’s supporters will meet at 9.30am outside the employment appeal tribunal at Fleetbank House, Salisbury Square, London EC4, ahead of the hearing.

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