'My Partner Turned Out to Be an Undercover Cop - Now I'm Exposing the Truth'
Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.
For digital and print editions, packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, features, and columns….
SUBSCRIBE
Kate Wilson's new book, Disclosure, reads like fiction. Unfortunately for her, it is not.
It is the latest in a long-running fight for truth and accountability, after discovering her partner of two years was not the eco-activist he claimed to be.
Their relationship began in 2003. Mark Kennedy was working as an undercover police officer - infiltrating protest movements - throughout their two-year relationship. He was using Kate as a 'way in' to disrupt environmental campaigns in the UK.
Kate learnt of the deception in 2010 - and ever since has been battling to find out the extent of the scandal.
Her book "Disclosure: Unravelling the Spycops Files" was published last Thursday. It is described as 'experimental non-fiction'. It means that although it reads like a novel, it is true to her experiences, based on combing through thousands of pages of disclosures and documents uncovered in an official Investigatory Powers Tribunal, and now an ongoing public inquiry into the scandal.
In conversation with Byline Times, she discusses where the campaign stands now - and what undercover cops may still be getting away with.
ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE
Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.
PAY ANNUALLY - £39.50 A YEAR
PAY MONTHLY - £3.75 A MONTH
MORE OPTIONS
We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe.
Josiah Mortimer: You've got the official launch this week, but you're also dealing with the ongoing Public Inquiry. That must make this saga all very live for you, 20 years since your relationship with an undercover cop began?
Kate Wilson: "Yes, the book deals primarily with the relationship. But the case actually went wider than that because I knew seven undercover officers over a 12-year period…
"The inquiry is looking at all of the undercover policing operations, and so the other six will also be investigated.
"There is an entire public inquiry looking at 50 years of this with 200 - at least - people from the side of the spied upon, so the non-state core participants in the inquiry. That inquiry has been working chronologically, looking at spying starting in 1968, and they are just reaching my era now essentially."
Are you confident the inquiry can get the results you're looking for?
"I think I can say: absolutely not. A public inquiry of this scale is a very complex thing - it's not going to get the answers that I want, but that doesn't mean it's not getting answers.
"The public inquiry is skimming the surface, but they will also be publishing all this material and so there is the opportunity then to keep going, to keep understanding."
'The Draconian Anti-Protest Laws That Are the Real Threat to Free Speech in the UK'
A new report calls on the Government to 'look again' at repealing laws passed under the last Conservative Government
Rowan Popplewell
How has the inquiry treated the victims?
"I don't like the way that we are treated by the public inquiry. The officials… said four years ago that they were going to publicly release the name of the man who was Mark's handler for seven years, referred to in the book as EN 31.
"Over just the last week, they announced that they've changed their minds and they're going to keep that name secret. I'm horrified by that.
"One of the significant hopes I had in this public inquiry was that some of the faceless backroom men who ran Mark, who gave him his orders - to some extent, I hold them far more responsible even than Mark himself."
A note from the inqu...
For digital and print editions, packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, features, and columns….
SUBSCRIBE
Kate Wilson's new book, Disclosure, reads like fiction. Unfortunately for her, it is not.
It is the latest in a long-running fight for truth and accountability, after discovering her partner of two years was not the eco-activist he claimed to be.
Their relationship began in 2003. Mark Kennedy was working as an undercover police officer - infiltrating protest movements - throughout their two-year relationship. He was using Kate as a 'way in' to disrupt environmental campaigns in the UK.
Kate learnt of the deception in 2010 - and ever since has been battling to find out the extent of the scandal.
Her book "Disclosure: Unravelling the Spycops Files" was published last Thursday. It is described as 'experimental non-fiction'. It means that although it reads like a novel, it is true to her experiences, based on combing through thousands of pages of disclosures and documents uncovered in an official Investigatory Powers Tribunal, and now an ongoing public inquiry into the scandal.
In conversation with Byline Times, she discusses where the campaign stands now - and what undercover cops may still be getting away with.
ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE
Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.
PAY ANNUALLY - £39.50 A YEAR
PAY MONTHLY - £3.75 A MONTH
MORE OPTIONS
We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe.
Josiah Mortimer: You've got the official launch this week, but you're also dealing with the ongoing Public Inquiry. That must make this saga all very live for you, 20 years since your relationship with an undercover cop began?
Kate Wilson: "Yes, the book deals primarily with the relationship. But the case actually went wider than that because I knew seven undercover officers over a 12-year period…
"The inquiry is looking at all of the undercover policing operations, and so the other six will also be investigated.
"There is an entire public inquiry looking at 50 years of this with 200 - at least - people from the side of the spied upon, so the non-state core participants in the inquiry. That inquiry has been working chronologically, looking at spying starting in 1968, and they are just reaching my era now essentially."
Are you confident the inquiry can get the results you're looking for?
"I think I can say: absolutely not. A public inquiry of this scale is a very complex thing - it's not going to get the answers that I want, but that doesn't mean it's not getting answers.
"The public inquiry is skimming the surface, but they will also be publishing all this material and so there is the opportunity then to keep going, to keep understanding."
'The Draconian Anti-Protest Laws That Are the Real Threat to Free Speech in the UK'
A new report calls on the Government to 'look again' at repealing laws passed under the last Conservative Government
Rowan Popplewell
How has the inquiry treated the victims?
"I don't like the way that we are treated by the public inquiry. The officials… said four years ago that they were going to publicly release the name of the man who was Mark's handler for seven years, referred to in the book as EN 31.
"Over just the last week, they announced that they've changed their minds and they're going to keep that name secret. I'm horrified by that.
"One of the significant hopes I had in this public inquiry was that some of the faceless backroom men who ran Mark, who gave him his orders - to some extent, I hold them far more responsible even than Mark himself."
A note from the inqu...
Activity