As reported in the Guardian today,  the Metropolitan Police are required to pay substantial compensation to a man (TBS) who was fathered by an undercover police officer who formed a long-term relationship with his mother in the 1980s in order to spy on political campaigners.

Jules Carey representing TBS said:

“Seven years ago, when TBS was 26, he learned that he was fathered by an undercover police officer who was spying on his mother and her fellow environmental and animal rights activists. TBS was disorientated by this shocking disclosure and instructed me initially to simply arrange a meeting with the Metropolitan Police so that he could get some answers about the circumstances of his birth and subsequent abandonment by his father. The Met refused a meeting with TBS and it was necessary to issue legal claims in the High Court. The Met fiercely contested his claims, initially by unsuccessfully attempting to strike them out and then by joining his father to proceedings. TBS sent a list of questions to the Met but they managed to sidestep them and concluded the case by paying him substantial damages and apologising; but without answering a single one of them. Learning that he was the by-product of an undercover policing operation has been a significant challenge for TBS, and that was made much harder by the conduct of the Met throughout proceedings. TBS is now looking ahead to the Undercover Policing Inquiry and hoping that he might finally get answers to the questions that are central to him understanding his identity”.