Undercover officer rekindled relationship seven years later, inquiry told
‘Rob Harrison’ reappeared in woman’s life in
2014, before disappearing again
The officer, who used the fake name Rob Harrison, has a relationship lasting almost a year with the woman, but left in 2007, claiming that his mother was dying.Rob Evans
An undercover officer who deceived a woman into a sexual relationship reappeared in her life seven years after his deployment ended to rekindle their relationship, only to suddenly disappear again without explanation, a public inquiry has heard.
The police officer, who used the fake name Rob Harrison to infiltrate pro–Palestine campaigners, had a relationship lasting almost a year with the woman while he was undercover. The relationship ended in 2007, when Harrison disappeared, claiming he had to look after his dying mother.
In 2014, after intermittent contact, he persuaded the woman to resume their relationship, telling her that he wanted to have children together. At that point, the woman, who is known only as Maya as she has been granted anonymity by the inquiry, broke up with her partner of five years.
However, Harrison disappeared the day after they slept together again. He has not contacted her again since then, excluding one email he sent four years ago.
Maya only found out last year that Harrison had been an undercover officer sent to spy on her and other leftwing campaigners as part of the Metropolitan police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS).
Harrison’s conduct was described on Monday in an opening statement to the inquiry by Phillippa Kaufmann QC, who represents 20 women deceived into sexual relationships by undercover officers between 1985 and 2015. These included long-term relationships that lasted years.
She told the inquiry the state-sponsored deception had been “devastating and life-altering” for each of the women.
The inquiry, headed by retired judge Sir John Mitting, is examining how undercover officers spied on more than 1,000 political groups over more than 40 years.
Kaufmann said that the undercover officers were “permitted or encouraged” to form sexual relationships with campaigners they were spying on as a deliberate tactic.
She said the men routinely formed relationships with the women without disclosing their real identities, before disappearing from their lives without any explanation.
“Before they even discovered the truth, many of the women were already deeply traumatised and scarred by the deceptions and extreme emotional manipulation practised on them.”
“To groom the women, the undercover officers mirrored their interests and values and were unstintingly supportive and attentive. Unsurprisingly, many of the women fell deeply in love, believing they had met their soulmate.
“Having drawn the women in so comprehensively, they then deployed a markedly similar and deeply cruel exit strategy – a sudden withdrawal often accompanied by an apparent mental breakdown, or emotional trauma.
“This left the women not only dealing with their own sudden, inexplicable and enormous loss, but also carrying a huge burden of worry and fear about the welfare of their lost partner.”
The most recent relationship that has been revealed is the one Harrison established with Maya. Remarkably, Harrison reappeared in Maya’s life seeking to restart their relationship after the then home secretary, Theresa May, had ordered the public inquiry into undercover policing of protest groups in March 2014.
Harrison infiltrated the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement and other groups between 2004 and 2007. He played at fundraising benefit concerts as a DJ, using the name “Boogie Knight”.
Harrison has a long-term relationship with Maya that ended in 2007 when, according to Kaufmann, he “claimed his mother was dying of cancer and he needed to spend her final months with her”.
She said: “After he left he communicated intermittently and then in August 2014 he contacted her again and on his invitation they met up. Over the next few months Rob expressed a desire to resume the relationship and to have children together. As a result of this fresh contact Maya broke up with her partner of five years, with whom she was living at the time.”
“In February 2015, Maya and Rob slept together for the first time since they had separated in 2007. They had unprotected sex and Maya had to take emergency contraception the following day. The same day Rob disappeared and with the exception of one email he sent to her in 2016, he has never contacted Maya since.”
Kaufmann also told the inquiry that another undercover officer, who used the fake name of James Straven, lied to the inquiry to try and cover up his relationships. Straven had deceived two women into sexual relationships while he infiltrated animal rights groups between 1997 and 2002.
He had a two-year relationship with a woman, known only as Sara, and he then had a year-long relationship with a 21-year-old woman, known as Ellie, which ended around 2002 when he claimed that he was moving abroad.
Kaufmann said that Ellie stayed in touch with him by email and they met up every couple of years.
In 2018, four years after May announced the creation of the public inquiry, Straven revealed to Ellie that he had been an undercover officer. “He told her to delete their WhatsApp messages and emails. It is clear that he was trying to destroy the evidence that would reveal his lies to the inquiry,” Kaufmann said.
“For James had twice lied to the inquiry: first denying that he had had any intimate relationships including with Sara and Ellie, and second [saying] that all he could provide by way of contact details was ‘a guess at an old email address’,” she added.
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