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‘How many more of us were tricked by police officers?’
Police at a Reclaim the Streets and Liverpool Dockers March for Social Justice in 1997, the type of protest Jenner may have attended. Picture: David Hoffman/hoffmanphotos.com - Credit: Archant
The activist deceived by undercover police spy Mark Jenner, who embarked on a five-year relationship with her while married with children, has warned hundreds of women may have been affected by the Met’s infiltration of left-wing political groups.
Mark Jenner carrying the Colin Roach Centre banner on a protest march - Credit: Archant
Alison – a pseudonym she is using to protect her children – has called for a list of the fake names used by others in his unit to be released, so the extent of the Met’s deception can finally be known.
She also wants the ongoing public inquiry into the Met’s secret infiltration of political groups to order all files the Met holds about her to be released so she can gain some closure – which they have to date refused.
Alison formed a relationship Jenner, who she knew as Mark Cassidy after meeting at the Colin Roach Centre in 1995, a political community centre that exposed police corruption at Stoke Newington police station.
Alison and eight other women brought a case against the Met that they settled out of court, and for which the Met issued a public apology after conceding the deception was a “gross violation” of their human rights and an abuse of police power.
Mark Jenner, whilst on holiday with Alison - Credit: Archant
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Alison told the Gazette: “Unless through the public inquiry the Met is made to give out the cover names, we won’t get a full picture of the extent to which this is individual behaviour or institutional behaviour.
“The inquiry is supposed to give a robust and transparent investigation into undercover policing since 1968, but how can it find out the extent to which innocent people’s lives have been affected and disrupted if we don’t know how many spies have gone out and had relationships?”
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She continued: “I don’t think anyone imagined the level of intrusion would be so deep. Even now I think people struggle to get their heads around it, in that they put it in a box and say it wasn’t endemic, they are just ‘rogue officers’.
“But how can it be? There are too many of them, over too many years. If it is the case then tell us their names and we will be able to see – we will have all these names that nobody slept with.
Mark Jenner - Credit: Archant
“Until we see those numbers we aren’t in a position to trust they are telling the truth because they aren’t telling us anything.”
A public meeting under the banner of “Big Brother – Who’s Watching You?” takes place at Chat’s Palace, in Brooksby’s Walk, Homerton on February 26 at 7.30pm.
The meeting will include discussions about why undercover cop Mark Jenner infiltrated Hackney campaigners in the 1990s.
Speakers include Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, and founding members of the Colin Roach Centre Graham Smith and Mark Metcalf.
Lead photo by David Hoffman
