Revisited: the spy cops scandal (part 2)

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Guardian’s Paul Lewis and Rob Evans on investigating one of England’s most covert police units and learning that they were using the identities of dead children. Frank Bennett reflects on the impact of discovering that a police spy had stolen his dead brother’s identity to infiltrate two leftwing organisations, and to deceive a woman into a sexual relationship The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed is available now on ITVX. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:09.3	Today we are running the second of a two-part special that we made back in 2020 about the so-called
0:14.8	spy cops scandal. The Guardian revealed this week that at least 25 undercover police officers
0:20.2	formed sexual
0:21.0	relationships with members of political groups without ever disclosing who they really were.
0:27.1	And at least three of those police spies fathered children with women they met while using
0:31.9	their fake identities. In the UK this week, ITV aired a three-part documentary. It's called The Undercover Police Scandal, Love and Lies Exposed.
0:41.1	But here with our former host, Anushka Astana, is the inside track on how the Guardian wrote the story.
1:03.0	What to you is Vertical Farming? Vertical farming is a high density farming operation where you control every aspect. It's delivering in terms of volume, it's delivering in terms of quality, but also we're tackling some quite important climate change drivers in terms of CO2 reduction, reduce water consumption
1:12.8	at the same time.
1:13.9	Tesco is working with its suppliers to find more sustainable ways to grow our food.
1:18.4	To find out more, visit theguardine.com forward slash Tesco sustainability.
1:22.6	This message was paid for by Tesco.
1:27.6	Yesterday, we told you about a Guardian investigation in which our journalists worked with
1:33.5	political activists to reveal a secret police unit that had four decades been sending
1:39.3	undercover officers to infiltrate political groups. One disturbing revelation was the way in which many women were deceived into sexual relationships.
1:50.4	Today we are focusing on another technique.
1:54.3	How officers routinely stole the identities of dead children to create their aliases.
2:03.5	From The Guardian, I'm Anushka Astana.
2:07.1	Today in Focus, The Spy Cop Scandal, part two.
2:16.7	I'm going to start with a warning.
2:18.9	We do discuss suicide in this episode.
	...

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