Finding out your partner has been unfaithful can be a shattering experience. For one British activist in a five-year relationship, this betrayal was compounded by an even darker secret.
Not only did she discover her long-time boyfriend had a hidden wife and family, but he was also an undercover police officer. His relationship with her was solely to infiltrate activist groups in the UK.
Known as the spy cops scandal internationally, Alison, among many, was targeted by undercover police units to collect information on left-wing groups in Britain. Notably, only three far-right groups faced similar scrutiny.
Alison, an English schoolteacher, was a young anti-fascist and anti-racist when she met Mark Cassidy. He spoke fluently in radical terms, calling himself an ‘anarcho-syndicalist’. But it wasn’t until she searched his coat pocket years later that her suspicions arose.
After noticing he was spending more time away from their shared home, Alison told ITV’s This Morning that she finally acted on her instincts and checked his jacket pocket.
Alison recounted: “I thought there was something he was keeping from me, I didn’t think it was this. It doesn’t reflect that well, but I looked in his jacket that he’d left behind and I found a bank card. It was in a different name, M. Jenner.”
Upon his return, she confronted him about the card. He explained it was stolen and bought off someone at a pub. Though she cut up the card, Alison did not delve deeper, stating: “I’m just a teacher, what do I know about buying stolen credit cards off guys in pubs?”
It wasn’t until ‘Mark Cassidy’ abruptly ended their relationship after five years, claiming ‘depression’, that Alison realized something was seriously wrong.
Alison revealed on the show: “When he left, with a note on the table, that’s not how you leave a five-year relationship. Not in my world.”
This spurred her to contact individuals who knew him, including a family member he had acknowledged.
“It became apparent that he didn’t want to be found,” she mentioned.
After forming a campaign group with other women who suspected their partners were undercover agents, Alison eventually reached her ex’s wife. She revealed that he alternated between her home and Alison’s.
Mark, whose real name was Mark Jenner, had children with his wife during his relationship with Alison. Last year, he was summoned to provide evidence in the undercover policing inquiry. He claimed that engaging with women was necessary for his surveillance role, a necessity rather than a job perk, as reported by the BBC.
Reflecting 15 years later, Alison said: “It’s not about him, he was part of a machine. He had managers. There was a back office. He had a manual that told him how to manage this deceit.
“This wasn’t about prosecuting people, this wasn’t about putting people through the criminal justice system, this was simply about surveilling.”
Comparing it to the East German secret police, Alison said, “It’s akin to the Stasi.”
“I’m not the only one, what we know is that there are more than 60 women that this has happened to.”
A comprehensive inquiry into this policing scandal in Britain is anticipated to conclude next year after over a decade of evidence collection and interrogating the undercover officers who manipulated relationships with women in activist circles.
The undercover units were tasked with infiltrating groups like Greenpeace, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and several socialist organizations. These units have since been disbanded.