An undercover police officer, who deceived a woman by assuming a fake identity and entered a 19-year intimate relationship with her, has been revealed to have also been married to a separate woman during the entire duration of his deception. The scandal came to light during a public inquiry, which discovered that the officer, impersonating as a businessman, fathered a child with the first woman and kept his real identity and occupation hidden from her throughout their relationship.

The undercover officer registered his child using the alias he adopted during his undercover mission, and it wasn’t until 2020 that the woman learned his true identity as a police officer after nearly two decades. At that point, she was planning to marry him. This incident marks the longest-known deceptive relationship by an undercover officer.

Besides the trauma this inflicted on the first woman, codenamed Gabriella, her family has also been deeply affected by the officer’s actions. Gabriella has chosen to remain silent publicly, while her relatives report that she has become but a shadow of her former self. Her involvement with the officer extended to the point where he had become close with her family.

Simultaneously, a second woman, referred to as Esther, was married to the same undercover officer for an undisclosed period. Upon learning about his relationship and child with Gabriella in 2021, Esther’s life and well-being were severely impacted, as stated by the inquiry.

The inquiry, currently headed by retired judge Sir John Mitting, is investigating not only this case but also the broader issue of undercover officers interacting with over a thousand political groups between 1968 and at least 2010. It is known that at least 25 undercover officers had sexual relationships with members of the general public without revealing their true identities.

In the later stages, the inquiry is set to explore another dimension of undercover policing: the infiltration of criminal organizations. The individual in question was not involved in monitoring political activists but was tasked with intelligence gathering about criminals.

Avon and Somerset police have publicly apologized to Gabriella, emphasizing that her relationship with the undercover officer was unrelated to any criminal activities and did not influence his deployment. The police force reassured that Gabriella had not been a subject of their surveillance.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/23/uk-spy-cop-who-deceived-woman-into-19-year-relationship-was-also-married