Police apologise after undercover officer's relationship with member of public
Avon and Somerset Police said the member of the public involved was not aware their partner was an undercover officer and was using a pseudonym
Last updated 7th Sep 2023
A police force has apologised after an undercover officer began a relationship with a woman, which reportedly lasted nearly two decades.
Avon and Somerset Police said the member of the public involved was not aware their partner was an undercover officer and was using a pseudonym.
The Guardian newspaper reported the relationship lasted 19 years and that the woman and officer had a child together.
The force said the officer was no longer serving and the woman had no connection to the police or her partner's undercover role.
"While working in an undercover role, a former officer engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a member of the public using their pseudonym," a spokesman said.
"The member of the public has no connection with policing and until recently they were entirely unaware of their links to an undercover police officer.
"They played no role in, and were not connected to, the officer's operational deployment.
"This deployment is historic and happened many years ago. We fully recognise for those involved it has been deeply upsetting over a number of years and remains so today.
"We are sorry.
"We recognise and understand the devastating and appalling impact this has had on all those affected, and we have taken and continue to take our duty of care to them extremely seriously.
"Our commitment to support them is unwavering and our genuine and sincere intention is to ensure they're getting the support they need both now and in the future."
The force said its decisions should be reviewed independently and in 2016 a referral was made to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which had been established the previous year to examine allegations of systematic abuses by undercover policing units since 1968.
"We also referred ourselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and these investigations are still ongoing," the spokesman said.
"We are fully co-operating with both these inquiries and will implement all recommendations made.
"We expect all our officers and staff to act with the highest levels of integrity and professionalism at all times.
"We will not tolerate any misuse or abuse of position and there are serious consequences for anyone who engages in this behaviour.
"Our absolute priority is to keep the public safe as well as our officers and staff.
"We are unable to go into further details to protect the integrity of the ongoing independent inquiries and because we cannot risk putting information into the public arena which could pose a real and substantial threat of serious harm to others."
The Guardian newspaper alleged the Avon and Somerset force had learnt of the relationship in 2013 but had not informed the woman until 2020.
"The whole thing has broken her..."
The woman's sister told the newspaper: "This whole thing has broken her. She has expressed suicidal thoughts. She cries daily. She does not sleep. She is really fearful.
"Our dad, the stress of this has destroyed his health. This has put him in hospital. My mum is on antidepressants, she can't sleep at night.
"We can't talk about this to anybody, not even with our own children. It's broken us as a family."
The family told the newspaper they believed the undercover officer was a businessman who was interested in cars and spent his spare time weight training and doing martial arts.
An IOPC spokesman confirmed they were already conducting their own investigation.
"We can confirm we are concluding a managed investigation into allegations that senior officers failed to adequately investigate the conduct of an undercover officer once it had been brought to their attention," they said.
"We are in the process of giving the outcome of that investigation to all concerned parties so it would be inappropriate to say more at this time.
"We are also conducting a managed investigation into complaints from members of the public who were affected by the behaviour of the undercover officer including that senior officers deliberately withheld information from them. That investigation is ongoing.
"Given the sensitivity of these investigations, we cannot provide more information due to the risks posed by disclosing information which may lead to the identity of those affected."