Activist Kate Wilson Duped into Relationship with MET Officer Has Been Awarded

Environmental activist Kate Wilson has recently been awarded compensation worth £229,000 after being cheated into a relationship with the undercover Met officer Mark Kennedy.

Wilson comes out as an inspiration for all women activists who have been sexually assaulted by the police force in one way or the other. She is in fact the first woman activist to raise her case in court. The legal case has concluded that the Met police force has violated the human rights of Wilson and decided to give her compensation.

As per Kate Wilson, she has been deceived into a two-year sexual relationship. Nonetheless, winning this case has not been easy for her. She has fought for almost 10 years to discover how she was duped into this relationship with an undercover police agent. For years, she has been running campaigns to bring what happened with her to light.

Apparently, Mark Kennedy is an undercover agent of the Met police force and he has worked for many years to spy on environmental activist groups.

According to legal authorities, what Kennedy has done is beyond redemption. In fact, three judges in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) claimed that Mark Kennedy humiliated and degraded Kate Wilson by secretly dragging her into an intimate relationship.

Kennedy's relationship with Wilson lasted for almost 2 years (2003 to 2005). However, he remained silent about his true identity the whole time. In reality, Kennedy was an undercover agent of the Met police force sent for keeping an eye on Wilson and the activist groups she was closely working with. It was only in 2010, after 5 long years, that Wilson got to know about Kennedy's true identity.

It has been revealed that Kennedy was a part of "a covert police operation" that kept an eye on over a thousand activist groups known for their leftwing and progressive ideologies for more than 40 years. During such operations, many women became victims of abusive relationships with these undercover agents. As per sources, these relationships took place between the 1970s and 2010.

Mark Kenndy disguised himself as Mark Stone to spy on Wilson. It was in 2003 Nottingham that he met Wilson posing as an environmental activist. Mark Kennedy was one of the 6 undercover agents of the Met's National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPIOU) that had been sent on the mission to spy on political activists. Kenndy has been associated with the "sister unit" of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS).

According to Wilson, the senior police officers of Met already knew about Kennedy's relationship with her. However, they didn't take any action. The same has been confirmed by the IPT judges. As per the judges, the senior police officers either knew about the relationship or deliberately decided to remain ignorant about it.

Wilson showed her frustration with the operation highlighting how these things are unethical for a democratic society. It breaches one of his or her right to expression and other fundamental human rights.

Wilson no doubt stood out as a winner. It is said that she fought half of her case herself as she couldn't afford legal authority. Even IPT judges appreciated Wilson for her "tenacity and perseverance."

Not only that, Met itself agreed on the gross behaviour of its undercover police forces. They claimed that their agents formed several intimate and deceitful relationships with women activists. It has been revealed that Wilson is one of the 12 women activists who has been paid compensation by them.

Wilson further highlighted that police forces are incapable of protecting women from their own officers. It shows a serious problem in the police force and how the undercover agents are trained. Although senior police officers claimed that the undercover agents are strictly told to form no relationship with women activists, they end up getting into one. In the case of Kennedy, it was also revealed that he was already married and that he formed many illicit bonds with several women activists.

As the IPT judges pointed out, it's true that the supervision of undercover agents is "fatally flawed." It is not only degrading but a slap on the face of democracy too as it is a visible violation of human rights and dignity. Wilson and other women activists' privacy has not only been intruded but their rights have also been violated.

Since the 1970s, over 139 undercover agents have been working on the operation of spying on women activists. During the period, not only Kennedy but many of them ended up forming sexual relationships with women activists. These undercover agents have spied on over 1,000 political groups since 1968.

And as far as Kennedy is concerned, he has had relationships with several women activists. It is also revealed that with one woman activist his relationship lasted for 6 long years.

The Met's assistant commissioner, Helen Ball, has accepted the flaws in the system. He agreed that there was a serious failing in the operation and its execution that allowed Kennedy to debase the rights of women activists. He also accepted the flaw in the supervision that these undercover agents receive that allows them to get down to this level. At the same time, they also made it clear that Kenndy's behaviour and actions were strictly against the role that an undercover agent is expected to play.

Met and NPCC further accepted the gravity of the situation and apologized to Kate Wilson for the debasement that she had to face. They even agreed to look further into the matter and improve the training that their undercover agents receive. Proper supervision and training guidelines need to be implemented and timely monitored to see if the undercover agents are working within their ethical boundaries.

Keeping everything in mind and to provide justice to Ms. Wilson, the judges finally demanded the Metropolitan police and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to pay a compensatory reward of £229,471 to Wilson for the violation of her human rights.