‘Undercover police officers were deceiving us for sex’

Women speak on camera for the first time about how police exploited them to infiltrate progressive political groups

- HOLLY EVANS

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.