Today, we sent a letter to Amber Rudd, the current Home Secretary, requesting an urgent meeting with her.

We are a group of thirteen women. All of us have suffered the same devastating discovery: that we’d been unwittingly deceived into relationships with undercover police officers, who had been sent to spy on us and our friends.

Some of us made that discovery a long time ago, and have already spent over six gruelling years battling for the truth about what was done to us, and for assurances that this won’t be done to any other women in future.

We wrested an ‘apology’ from the Met Police Service in November 2015, but have had less luck getting answers to our questions: who knew about the existence of these units? how much information did they record about our most intimate lives? what is on our files? who were these men? who were their managers? which groups were they spying on? who authorised their activities? etc

In one notorious case, ‘Alison’ is still waiting for official confirmation that her ex-partner, who she knew as ‘Mark Cassidy’ throughout their relationship, was in fact a married police officer named ‘Mark Jenner’.

Some of us found out more recently, and are still bringing civil claims against the police.  They are now threatening us with intrusive assessments by a psychiatrist instructed by the police.

We are fast losing faith in the Undercover Policing Inquiry, and call upon Amber Rudd to take action to prevent it from failing.

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