Undercover cop used name of dead child to infiltrate left-wing groups

A police officer working undercover used the identity of a dead child as he attempted to infiltrate left-wing groups. Vincent Harvey, who used the identity of a dead six-year-old to dupe a woman into sex, went on to become director of the National Criminal Intelligence ServiceThe details of Vincent Harvey's time in the secret undercover unit came to light today as an interim report of a £64m public inquiry was released. Harvey, now 71, deceived a Socialist Workers Party activist known as “Madeleine”. She only discovered she had been duped when she was visited three years ago by an official from the inquiry, reports MirrorOnline.In her witness statement “Madeleine” said: “At that time in my life, I was very shy and reserved. I was also quite vulnerable as a result of my marriage ending ... I now think Vince probably saw me as easy pickings.”Charlotte Kilroy KC, the barrister speaking for many of the women, told the inquiry there was not a single law that could justify what had been done."They had used women for sex - but also to gain access to other activists they were determined to target. These were women who were entitled to believe they were safe in their homes and private circles of friends and acquaintances," said Ms Kilroy."Instead of choosing officers who would respect the women they encountered and instead of taking all necessary precautions to counter the obvious risk of sexual relationships, both the Metropolitan Police Service - and the men sent into their lives - had contempt for them."The undercover unit, nicknamed "the Hairies" because officers grew their hair long to blend in with their targets, was so secretive that most other officers did not know it even existed. For more than 50 years, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and its successor, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), controversially monitored more than 1,000 political campaigners and groups, including the parents of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager murdered by racists in 1993.Today's interim report is only looking at cases from the late 60s to early 80s. The inquiry, which has cost £64m so far, will go on to look at the activities of the unit until 2008.Chairman Sir John Mitting said that if details of what the SDS was doing had been made public in the 1970s, the unit would have been “brought to a rapid end”. The squad required annual authorisation and funding approval from the Home Office, and in 1976 a group of senior police officers found it should continue work with a minimum of 12 undercover officers.But Sir John found key issues had not been considered, including long-term undercover deployments meaning intrusion into the personal lives of many hundreds of people, including entering their homes by deception. Officers accepted positions of responsibility within the groups they were infiltrating and became involved in organising political activity, and their use of dead children’s identities should have been referred to the highest ranks of the Met and the Home Office, he concluded.Sir John said: “If these issues had been addressed, it is hard to see how any conclusion could legitimately have been reached which would not have resulted in the closure of the SDS.”