Spycops: Britain's political policing scandal

For nearly half a century, the British police embedded agents within progressive political and protest movements; officers deceived activists into intimate relationships, sometimes fathering children, before vanishing from their lives forever. As the Undercover Policing Inquiry continues to unearth new abuses, New Internationalist co-editor Bethany Rielly speaks to two spycops campaigners about their search for justice.

In this episode we also hear evidence given to the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry by ex-undercover officer Andy Coles, who is accused of having an intimate relationship with an animal rights activist known as ‘Jessica’ when she was 19 years old. Coles publicly denied the claims in the Peterborough Telegraph after he was unmasked in 2017, dismissing them as ‘lurid’. Despite this, in 2020, the Metropolitan Police upheld a complaint by Jessica, after launching an internal investigation which found ‘credible evidence’ about the alleged relationship. It said Coles would have faced a disciplinary hearing on a charge of gross misconduct if he had not already retired from the Metropolitan Police in 2013. On 18 and 19 December 2024, the ex-officer again refuted the allegations in oral evidence to the inquiry. Other female activists have also accused Coles of making sexual advances on them, which he also denied.

Read NI546: Spying on dissent

Hosts: Maxine Betteridge-Moes & Bethany Rielly

Credits: Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)

Credit for audio clips of hearings: The Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI)

Guests: Tom Fowler, Jessica

The cop who spied on grief (Bethany Rielly, New Internationalist)

Why Spycops victims walked out from the police inquiry (Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance, New Internationalist)

Spycops Info (Undercover policing podcast hosted by Tom Fowler)