Met police spent £2.5m hiding spycop from former partner

newsJul 26, 202617424

The Spycops public inquiry found that senior Metropolitan Police officers secretly monitored activist Helen Steel and spent about £2.5 million relocating undercover officer John Dines to prevent Steel finding him. Dines, who had a two-year sexual relationship with Steel under a false identity in the early 1990s, vanished in 1992 claiming a mental breakdown; Steel later tried to trace him. In December 2002 Scotland Yard arranged for New Zealand police to place a warning on Steel that triggered a customs search at Auckland airport, then covertly tailed and photographed her and her family during visits. The inquiry heard that senior Met officers authorised the large expenditure, including helping Dines buy a house, as part of a calculated plan to protect the secret deployment. Steel told the inquiry she was "really angry" that police used state powers to stop her discovering how an officer had "deceived and sexually exploited" her and called the operation "illegitimate and undemocratic." Former Met commissioner Paul Condon admitted the force had failed to control officers and managers who carried out "horrendous abuses," and the inquiry is examining misconduct by undercover officers who spied on more than 1,000 political groups between 1968 and at least 2010.

George Monbiot

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

The continuing claims by the police that all this is the work of a "rogue unit" or a "few bad apples" are yet more lies piled on top of 50 years of lying. The state surveillance, state rape and state cover-ups are institutional and systemic. It's not over. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

2201h ago

Tim Byrne8

Whenever someone talks about a 'few bad apples' I remind them of what happens to the whole barrel in the second half of that saying.

Arfur Towcrate4

£2.5m of our money, that could have been spent on fighting crime, not covering it up

silverranger.bsky.social3

Makes you wonder how the state is now currently spying on peace activists……

guitaronthemtv.bsky.social2

They never complete the phrase. "A few bad apples..."

Simon 🪗2

Things like this are exactly why the Home Office want it stopped... www.counterfire.org/article/home...

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

don't think non-Brits have been following the Spycops scandal, but it's nuts; not only was the government spying on entirely peaceful and legal activism , cops were regularly forming relationships with activists including in some cases fathering children. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

1662h ago

BeijingPalmer63

they also spied on the family of a murdered black child.

Lucy Kwiatek5

How many times has that happened?

Loukas Christodoulou5

Hey I was one of the people they spied with. I lived with an undercover cop for around a year.

🌿2

this is like something out of hoover’s fbi jesus christ

A Bean1

Jesus Christ, they didn’t think that maybe they shouldn’t fuck the people they were spying on?

Quoting this

Nick Barlow4

Every British public inquiry takes a few weeks to investigate the actual events, then needs several years to unravel the massive cover up operation that tried to hide them.

Ian Moody

@ianmoody.bsky.social

How the Met police spent £2.5m hiding spycop from former partner. Spycops inquiry has revealed how Helen Steel was secretly monitored in her search for undercover officer who deceived her into relationship. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

73h ago

Andrew Jull NZRN (he/him)

@andrewjull.bsky.social

Who paid for the undercover surveillance of Helen Steel while she was visiting her sister in NZ? Were the New Zealand Police reimbursed by the Metropolitan Police in the UK? Or did the NZ taxpayer end up funding this misuse of funds? #nzpol www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

71h ago

Idiot/Savant

@norightturnnz.bsky.social

NZ police cooperate with English police in anti-democratic surveillance www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

83h ago

Andy Fleming

@slackbastard.bsky.social

#Spycops 'Steel’s sister collected the family and drove them to her home 90 minutes away. Again, none of them knew surveillance officers employed by New Zealand police were tailing them.' www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

3Just now

Opal - Toitū Te Tiriti 🍉

@opaltiger.bsky.social

Bloody disgusting the lengths the authorities went to to stalk a single activist. Fake boyfriend, fake lawyer (Keir Starmer) and then roping in NZ police when she went looking for the truth. #nzpol

54h ago

MellowSteadyFlow

@mellowsteadyflow.bsky.social

Met Police must be named and shamed for this. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

31h ago

Meish

@meish100.bsky.social

"Oh what a tangled Web we weave, when we first practice to deceive". What a despicable police force we have. 2.5 million quid spent on housing deceitful cops.. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

1h ago

Alicia

@agbutteriss.bsky.social

Mark Kennedy/Stone was outed just over 15 years ago - the Guardian's page on it defaults to having some older stories on the top, which is probably the correct choice www.theguardian.com/uk-news/seri... (the "slow-moving" ongoing inquiry was commissioned by Theresa May. As Home Secretary.)

2Just now

Simon 🪗

@mzdt.bsky.social

Things like this are exactly why the Home Office want it stopped... www.counterfire.org/article/home...

21h ago

HSA Chairperson

@hsachair.bsky.social

Typical Guardian not will to admit that Helen Steel was a Animal rights campaigner. They done their best with the coverage of the Spycops to exclude the animal rights movement as a big focus for the Spycops. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

1Just now

Dr Hannah Stevens

@drhannahstevens.bsky.social

The behaviour of Scotland Yard in relation to this just gets worse and worse. Truly horrifying. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

2h ago

Prof Rob Dover

@robdover.bsky.social

It's very hard for nearly everyone to understand how the MPS doesn't understand that it completely lost the plot during this era and on this issue. As in it was so far from the plot it's embarrassing. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

2h ago

Hugh Barnard

@hughbarnard.bsky.social

She was “really angry” (proper #Graun folks would have been more chill?): www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Just now

1 source

theguardian.comHow the Met police spent £2.5m hiding spycop from former partner

Met police spent £2.5m hiding spycop from former partnernews

Met police spent £2.5m hiding spycop from former partner

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