Deep Deception: The Story of the Spycop Network, by the Women Who Uncovered the Shocking Truth

by Lisa Anonymous

Groomed. Gaslighted. Ghosted.

They thought they'd found their soulmate. They had no idea he was spying on them.

These five motivated, independent women each thought they'd met their perfect partner - someone who shared their values, ambitions and goals.

But after a while, in some cases years later, the men started to behave strangely. They disappeared for weeks at a time, saying they needed to go away to clear their heads. Small details about their lives didn't quite fit. Then they vanished, leaving a note saying that the relationship was over.

These men were undercover police officers, who had targeted the women for their links to activist groups. They took the identities of dead children and carried fake passports and driving licences. They were all married, some with children. They had been working from a set of guidelines and were all using the same manipulative techniques.

This is the story of five women whose lives were stolen by state-sponsored spies, and who, one by one, uncovered the shocking truth.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Politics, Audiobook, Feminism

Audible Audio

First published March 31, 2022

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful account by 5 women who had to uncover years of abuse, deception and corruption they endured under state sanctioned activities.

This book highlights the organised and state level abuse that the police carries out in order to suppress the people. Ultimately exposing that when push comes to shove, the police will always serve to protect themselves and not the people. I hope for the day that the police and the biggest players in this scandal can finally be held accountable for their actions and the women can get answers and some real justice.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stupefying account of British women who were deceived into long-term relationships with undercover police officers. This is among the first written records of women who were "raped by the state." (if not the only such record).

This is a sad read. It reminded me of stories about women as secondary casualties of war, but this is so much lower stakes than war, which makes the harm seem even more pointless. The victims are just leftist protestors and their friends. Some are hardly political at all. The worst you can see for the others is that some of their tactics are illegal. Nothing justifies what the police did to them. In some cases, the police’s behavior is just plain sadistic: they cruelly manipulate these women’s emotions even after it’s obvious that they won’t have any "intelligence" to be gained.

The narrative is compelling. The story is told chronologically, with one woman's story after the next, until they finally start to meet each other and realize they've all been wronged. There are some nice effects to this style: in some ways, it is like watching a horror movie and all its sequels, and in each sequel, you hope that the woman somehow manages to survive.

Recommended for a general audience, especially those interested in women's rights and/or police malfeasance.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely remarkable insight into the suffering of 5 women who were deceived by undercover police officers. These women were all activists in some form or another, whether it be against Mcdonald's or other companies they were all activists in the 80's and targeted individually by undercover police officers to form relationships. Some of the women went into these relationships lasting years, having no idea who was lying next to them at night. Sudden disappearances leaving no explanations, left them all baffled at some stage.

This is the kind of story you think only happens on TV and is fictional, but this is completely real, from the mouths of only 5 women we know about, although undoubtedly there will be hundreds if not thousands of women in the same situation from some point in their lives. Extremely well written, very brave accounts, and towards the end of the book we discovered about the court cases where the women had tried to get the police to apologise and accept responsibility for their wrongdoings.

These women were deceived in incredible ways, and the men were so arrogant that they could lead double lives, which they did successfully for so many years. I am glad they have shown the faces of the officers who deceived them, they deserve to have be shown for what they did to these women and it was a fascinating read.

[Phil Chamberlain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This devastating story is from some of the women deceived into relationships with undercover police officers sent to spy on radical organisations.
Parts of their stories have been told by others including in Lewis and Evans excellent book Undercover. But this is the women talking about how the relationships started, ended and the painful process of realising their partners were living a lie.
It is known that more than a thousand groups were spied on the UK and more abroad, dozens of women targeted, many dozen more officers involved in spying and over a period stretching back to 1968.
The five stories here span a quarter of a century and show the breadth of the intrusion, deceit and trauma. This is compounded by the police and the state delaying and denying responsibility.
There is currently a judge-led public inquiry into the events which has barely scratched the surface of what is one of the UK’s worst human rights scandals.
Deep Deception is a shocking read but also a testament to the courage and imagination shown by the women who exposed the truth and banded together to fight back.
Applause and respect to the five for telling their stories so powerfully - how many other stories like this are out there?

[Karren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone in the UK should read this book. It describes the systematic emotional, psychological and sexual abuse of women by The Metropolitan Police. The story is bravely told by a number of the women whose lives have been disrupted by British secret police, and it's a compelling read. The fact that decades later these women are still waiting for answers is disturbing, as it suggests the true extent of these deceptive practices is even worse than it appears. The lies of the individual officers and the cover ups by the force as a whole paints a dark picture of secretive and anti-democratic practices that are seemingly allowed to continue, with no accountability.

[David Kenvyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I normally begin book reviews on my blog with the tagline “For the Joy of Reading”. In this case, that would be totally inappropriate. There is no joy in this book. There is admiration for the women who had the courage to bring the case that exposed the police spies from the Special Demonstration Squad and the NPOIU which replaced it. The fact that only Helen Steel has chosen to waive her anonymity is evidence of the deep trauma that these women have suffered. There is fury at the police officers who indulged in these tactics of deception and abuse, and let us name them because they do not deserve anonymity. Their names are Bob Lambert, John Dines, Mark Jenner and Mark Kennedy, and the pseudonyms they used were Bob Robinson, John Barker, Mark Cassidy and Mark Stone. But most of all, there is contempt for the senior police officers who allowed, if not authorised, their men to prostitute themselves, not for money, but to gain access to campaigning groups, to obtain information and possibly to discredit those groups by affecting policy decisions. To say that this was reprehensible does not even begin to describe my outrage. And remember, all this was paid for through our taxation, without any transparency or accountability.

Let us look at the accounts in the book. The first thing to say is that the police officers were trained to be inveterate liars, and it is not possible to believe a word that they are saying. The second issue is that the accounts in this book of what the spy police officers said is as the women who suffered the abuse remembered it. It is therefore possible that the detail is not entirely accurate. This however is an irrelevance because the police have finally admitted that the women were telling the truth.

All the women say that these police spies claimed to be suffering from some kind of emotional trauma, and broke off the relationships, but did not break off contact. Possibly this is true, but as all of them did the same thing, it is equally possible that this was part of their training and was intended to keep the relationship open if they needed to renew their spying on whichever organisation was concerned. The fact that one officer behaved in this way with two of the women that he was deceiving makes me very dubious of the emotional trauma argument. But if it was true, what does it say about the duty of care by the sneior officers in charge of these squads? What is quite clear is that the trauma and despair inflicted on the women who suffered this emotional abuse was never taken into consideration.

Those of us involved in protest organisations of various kinds, like in my case the Anti-Apartheid Movement, were well aware that we were being spied upon, that our phones were tapped and that police officers in plain clothes were at our public meetings, and infiltrated our local groups. Indeed, one of my friends has just given evidence to the public enquiry about this. I have to admit that we were more worried about South African police spies from the Bureau of State Security (BOSS) but we assumed that Special Branch passed information on to BOSS. I am not aware that any anti-apartheid women activists were seduced by police spies, but that does not mean that it did not happen, or that it was not even attempted.

The courage of the seven women who took this case to court is to be applauded. The mendacity of the police is mind-boggling. My worry is that the success in this case will not stop women being abused in this way. The police have lied to us about this for forty years and more. I can think of no reason why they should not continue to do so. Thos of us involved in left-wing politics of any kind should always be wary. It is not paranoia. It is something we have to do to be safe.

[Gill Jackman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top really get the essence of this book, you have to understand the following: The undercover policing scandal legal cases were actively stalled by the met. from 2011 onward. Even when the evidence was indisputable, the met spent all their energy – for years – doing anything and everything to avoid being exposed. The real need of these women who were institutionally gaslit - whose lives, emotions, sexuality and trust was destroyed -was to get full disclosure and even after being dragged through the courts and losing, the met would not (and still will not) provide this. The women are not allowed to see the files kept on them because the full extent of authorisation from on high would be brought into the light. Surely this inability and refusal to recognise and repair the damage done through absolute clarification of the facts – well within the power of the met – shows that no amount of pressure can address what is institutional sexism bred in the bone of the institution we are now expecting can address violence against women?

Let's not forget that the same team of officers sent an officer undercover to spy on the Lawrence family and so detract from the racist attitudes that prevented justice for Steven for all those years.

Further info: the women were forced, eventually, to look towards a public inquiry to answer their questions. The second tranche, covering abuses from 1982 to 1992 will not be heard until 2024. The met could stop violence against these particular women with one stroke of a pen – but they won't. Surely this is utterly and explicitly violence against women that they either can't see or simply refuse to take seriously.

Deep Deception (the story of what happened to the women) is published by Penguin.

[Jackie]

I’m honestly not quite sure how to rate this book because I am so utterly shocked by the level of deceit to the civilians by officers who should be in fact, protecting them, that I feel somewhat numb.

Makes me think that the right and the left squabble, accuse and hate on each other, call each other names when the real ‘baddie’ Is big brother. Using us as puppets to achieve its ends.

[ashlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

hooked!!!! picked it up while browsing at the airport bookstore and couldn’t stop reading it over the flight. the various names and characters were a little hard to keep track of but the narratives were so gripping.

[Chelsea Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF. Halfway done. Crazy story but i can't get myself to finish it. Maybe I eventually will.

[Noée Sellar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst reading would forget it’s a non-fiction book. A crazy real account of the abuse 5 women and more were objected to.