A British police spy married an activist he met while undercover in the environmental protest movement and then went on to have children with her.
He is the fourth spy now to have been identified as an undercover police officer engaged in the covert surveillance of eco-activists. Three of those spies are accused of having had sexual relationships with the people they were targeting.
The details of the activities of the fourth spy, who is still a serving police officer, emerged as the senior police officer managing the crisis in undercover operations insisted that officers were strictly banned from having sexual relationships with their targets.
Merseyside Chief Constable Jon Murphy said it was “never acceptable” for undercover officers to sleep with people they were targeting.
“Something has gone badly wrong here. We would not be where we are if it had not,” he said, referring to three inquiries into undercover policing that have been launched in response to the Guardian’s investigation into the first spy, Mark Kennedy, an undercover officer who had several sexual relationships during his seven-year deployment.
Murphy, the national lead officer on serious and organized crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, declined to speak about the Kennedy case directly, but said officers who infiltrated the environmental movement were not permitted “under any circumstances” to sleep with activists.
“It is grossly unprofessional. It is a diversion from what they are there to do. It is morally wrong because people have been put there to do a particular task and people have got trust in them,” he said.
Meanwhile the ex-wife of the fourth undercover police officer spoke about her relationship. The woman was married to Jim Boyling, a Metropolitan police officer who spent five years living under environmental campaigners between 1995 and 2000.
Using the identity “Jim Sutton,” Boyling infiltrated Reclaim the Streets, a group famed for bringing streets to a standstill in unruly protests against cars.
During his time undercover, when he is said to have become a key organizer, Boyling met a 28-year-old woman and began a relationship with her. He later disappeared from her life.
It was only when he reappeared a year later that he told the woman he was a police officer. They later married and had two children but divorced two years ago.
Speaking for the first time, the woman gave a detailed account of their relationship and alleges that Boyling encouraged her to change her name by deed poll, apparently to conceal their relationship from his seniors in the police. He also told her a ruling that undercover operatives should not have sex with targets was unrealistic and developing relationships with activists was “a necessary tool in maintaining cover,” she said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The