Undercover officer 'Dave Evans' admits lying to spycops inquiry about sexual relationship
An undercover police officer who infiltrated leftwing and animal rights groups under the fake name Dave Evans has been forced to admit he lied to the spycops inquiry when he claimed he had no sexual relationships during his deployment.
An undercover police officer who infiltrated leftwing and animal rights campaign groups has been forced to admit that he lied to the spycops inquiry when he claimed he did not have a sexual relationship as part of his deployment.
The officer, who used the fake name Dave Evans, had originally testified that he did not have any relationships while using his fake identity. But this week he was forced to admit to the inquiry that he did have a relationship with a woman that lasted at least six months. Under questioning, he said it was “possible” that it could have continued for two years, but could not recall how long.
Evans made the admission after campaigners drew evidence of the relationship to the attention of the spycops inquiry.
A central issue of the inquiry is how undercover officers frequently had sexual relations with women, but did not disclose to them their true identities. Four of the spies fathered, or are alleged to have fathered, children with women they met while working undercover.
Evans was one of about 139 undercover officers who were sent by their police superiors to spy on tens of thousands of mainly leftwing activists over more than four decades. He infiltrated the Socialist Workers party and animal rights groups including London Animal Action between 1998 and 2005.
In his first statement to the inquiry, signed four years ago, he wrote: “I did not engage in any sexual activity whilst in my undercover identity.”
But in a second statement that he signed this year, he admitted that “with the benefit of hindsight”, he should have disclosed that he had a relationship with a woman known as Olivia.
He made the admission after the inquiry had been told about his relationship with Olivia by campaigners. This evidence was mainly supplied by Helen Steel, a social justice campaigner who was a defendant in the celebrated McLibel case.
Evans said he had not originally disclosed the relationship “because she was not an activist nor part of any target group, I did not feel this was relevant”.
Sources
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