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A woman has told a public inquiry in London that she was left devastated and deeply mistrustful of police after an undercover officer deceived her into an intimate relationship at a young age.
The woman, known only as Ellie and who now lives in Australia, told the undercover policing inquiry on Thursday that she had a year-long relationship with James Thomson while he concealed his real identity from her.
For 16 years after the sexual relationship ended in 2002, Thomson maintained close relations with her, regularly emailing and kissing her when they met up. He sent five emails to her asking her to send photographs of her in lingerie, but she refused. He finally her told her the truth in 2018.
On one occasion, in 2015, he had sex with her. This occurred a year after the spycops inquiry had been commissioned by the UK government to scrutinise allegations of misconduct by undercover officers who infiltrated political movements.
One of the key issues in front of the inquiry is how for decades the undercover officers have regularly formed sexual relationships with women without disclosing that they had adopted fake personas and had been sent to spy on political activists.
Thomson, who infiltrated animal rights campaigners between 1997 and 2002, is set to be questioned next month by the inquiry which has said there were “very many troubling aspects” to his deployment.
Earlier this month, David Barr, the inquiry’s chief barrister, said Thomson “has, on his own admission, told many lies to date. He has lied not only to those he mixed with while deployed but also to his managers and to the inquiry”.
Among the allegations he will face are that he fabricated claims that an animal rights activist was seeking a gun to take revenge on a political opponent, developed a second fake identity without the authorisation of his Metropolitan police superiors, and broke the law while obtaining multiple identity documents.
Thomson was forced to admit to the inquiry that he had deceived two women into sexual relationships while undercover after initially denying them.
Ellie described how Thomson was her first real love and serious boyfriend. She was a “a particularly young and naive 21-year-old” when she started the relationship in 2001. He told her that he was 33 when he was actually 36.
She was “devastated and really heartbroken” when he said he needed to move to America in 2002 to be near his children and his ex-partner. This was a ruse as he was actually ending his undercover deployment.
Afterwards, Ellie and Thomson stayed in regular touch for more than a decade as they maintained relations that were “intimate, loving and romantic in nature … there was always sexual attraction and intimacy in our interactions … every time we met it was like being on a date”.
“In hindsight all of these ongoing interactions meant it was very difficult to ever get over him and move on. He has been the one that ‘got away’ if you will and no one has compared,” she said.
She said she has still not been able to fully process his deception, adding she had been left with a “deep mistrust of those who I previously believed were there to protect society as a whole”.
“I despise being some sort of victim. I hate that I was gullible and so naive, but seeing what the Metropolitan police are like nowadays, I am no longer surprised that they never even considered we were worth basic respect. I hate the amount of tears I have shed over this as it makes me feel pathetic.”
In 2005, Ellie moved to Australia with her friend, an animal rights activist known as Wendy who also testified on Thursday that Thomson had deceived her. She had been friends with him for 21 years without him disclosing his real identity. “The depth of the intrusion into every aspect of my life is unbelievable,” she said.
Last week, the second woman who was deceived by Thomson into a year-long intimate relationship, testified. The woman, known as Sara, described how she fell in love with him after meeting him in 1998, believing him to be her soulmate and would have married him if he had asked.
