A central aspect of the scandal around undercover policing has been undercover officers engaging in sexual relationships with those they were targeting. These have ranged from one-night stands to multi-year relationships and even fathering children. A question has been the extent to which these relationships have been condoned, discreetly ignored by handlers or managers, or even encouraged.
Officers' testimonies have sought to minimise, deflect and justify their damaging and deceptive behaviour.
It has become clear that undercovers were conducting relationships by the mid-1970s. HN297 Richard Clark ‘Rick Gibson’
In the IPT case, it was acknowledged by police lawyers that once an undercover officer engaged in a sexual relationship it tainted their deployment and the reliability of their intelligence for use in a court case, essentially rendering it of little value.
In 2025, the Inquiry published procedual documents relating to a Avon and Somerset police officer who had an 18-year sexual relationship under his cover identity and fathered a child. This story had been covered in The Guardian in 2023. This case is being dealt within Tranche 5 of the Inquiry.
Below is a list of undercovers who had, or are thought to have had, such relationships. Many had more than one, but specifics are not known or have not been made public. The number of women deceived in total is thought to be approaching 60 altogether. At least one and possibly as many as three female undercovers have had relationships with men they were targeting. Note, that many undercovers are denying the relationships happened.
| Undercover | Core Participant | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HN297 Richard Clarke 'Rick Gibson' | 'Mary' | Plus others. |
| HN354 Vincent Harvey 'Vince Miller' | 'Madeleine' | Plus others. |
| HN21 | Two women admitted to. | |
| HN106 'Barry Tompkins' | Admitted one relationship and was recorded by MI5 as having 'bedded' another woman, though he denied this. | |
| HN300 'Jim Pickford' | Became his wife. | |
| HN302 | Admitted to a 'fleeting sexual encounter'. | |
| HN67 'Alan Bond' | Admitted to a one night stand with a activist, but HN19 thought he had fathered a child. | |
| HN155 'Phil Cooper' | According to risk assessors he admitted to two or three sexual relationships. | |
| HN126 'Paul Gray' | Averred by Neil Hardie that HN126 had a relationship with Ros Gardner (deceased). HN126 denies it. | |
| HN78 Trevor Morris 'Anthony "Bobby" Lewis' | 'Bea', 'Jenny' | |
| HN2 Andrew Coles 'Andy Davey' | 'Jessica' | plus two women identified by others. |
| HN11 Michael Chitty 'Mike Blake' | 'Lizzie' | |
| HN12 'Mike Hartley' | One woman admitted to. | |
| HN5 John Dines 'John Barker' | Helen Steel | |
| HN1 'Matt Rayner' | Denise Fuller | |
| HN10 Robert Lambert 'Bob Robinson' | 'Jacqui', Belinda Harvey, CTS, RLC | |
| HN16 James Thomson 'James Straven' | Sara, Ellie | |
| HN15 Mark Jenner 'Mark Cassidy' | 'Alison' | |
| HN47 Peter Francis | Admitted to two different women. | |
| HN87 'John Lipscombe' | ELQ | plus one woman identified by others |
| HN14 Jim Boyling 'Jim Sutton' | 'Monica', 'Rosa', 'Ruth' | |
| HN104 Carlo Sorracchi 'Carlo Neri' | 'Lindsey', Donna McLean ('Andrea') | Also a third woman. |
| HN18 'Rob Harrison' | 'Maya' | |
| HN91 | Admitted one relationship. | |
| EN1/HN519 'Marco Jacobs' | AJA, ARB | |
| EN12 Mark Kennedy 'Mark Stone' | Kate Wilson, 'Lisa', 'Naomi', Sarah Hampton, Eleanor Fairbraida, 'C' | Plus others. |
| HN26 'Christine Green' | One known relationship. |