My lover was an undercover cop sent to spy on me - he seduced me by pretending he was an environmental activist but he was married with children the whole time

• Eleanor Fairbraida is one of 11 known victims of police officer Mark Kennedy
• READ MORE: I’m a cheater – this is why I chose to have a secret affair

A woman has revealed how she was duped by her lover who was secretly an undercover cop sent to spy on her.

Eleanor Fairbraida is one of around 11 known victims of Mark Kennedy, who posed as a committed eco-activist under the name Mark Stone.

Kennedy attended the Sumac Centre, a community hub in Nottingham from 2003, as part of the Met’s National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPIOU).

He is known to have had sexual relationships with Fairbraida and as many as 10 other women during his deployment between 2003 and 2010 – in one of the biggest policing scandals in modern times.

Fairbraida, 45, who now lives in Bristol, said she and Kennedy were friends for seven years after meeting at the centre and at one point their relationship progressed to become lovers.

Eleanor Fairbraida is one of 11 known victims of Mark Kennedy – she entered into a sexual relationship with him unaware that he had been sent to spy on her

But the whole time he had been sent to spy on the work the activists were doing and was secretly married with two children.

Speaking on Monday’s episode of This Morning, Fairbraida revealed: ‘They’ve been infiltrating progressive activist groups since the 1960s.

‘He walked into the Sumac Centre and just looked like an ordinary person who was interested in trying to make the world a better place. We welcomed him in.

Kennedy adopted the name Mark Stone and posed as an eco-activist at the Sumac Centre in Nottingham

But Kennedy was actually part of the Met’s National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPIOU)

‘He came in and they use a technique of mirroring – saying what you want to hear, particularly around women. He was just keen, he wanted to be involved, he said he’d just moved from London and didn’t really have any other friends.’

Kennedy, 54, had a passport in his undercover name and attended gatherings at power stations like Drax in North Yorkshire and the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005, even travelling around Europe to ‘take part in’ protests.

He was so convincing in his role as an environmental activist fighting against climate change that he was even willing to be beaten up by the police while attending the protests.

Fairbraida continued: ‘He moved into our house. I lived with him and three other people and I stayed with him in his house afterwards.

‘We were very close friends. I knew him for seven years. In 2008 our relationship developed and we were lovers for a while.

‘At the time we had no idea that this sort of thing happened.’

Faribraida has two young sons and three stepchildren. She has waived her right to anonymity to share her experience.

She previously told The Times: ‘It was a huge betrayal of trust. It was a horrific violation, it was non-consensual and it was supported by the state.’

Fairbraida said Kennedy also formed a long-term relationship with her friend Kate Wilson, as he pretended that they supported the same football team, liked the same music and had the same ‘trailer’ lifestyle.

In 2021, Wilson won a landmark tribunal case against the Metropolitan Police for breaches of her human rights.

The tribunal – in which Fairbraida was a witness – heard he had ‘police-issued phones, laptops, passport and bank cards’, all in his false identity, and ‘had a police-issued van and a flat paid for by the police’.

It also heard he was told to develop personal relationships in order to gather pre-emptive intelligence’ on activists at the centre, with the help of ‘an extensive support system for the purpose of this long-term infiltration’.

Fairbraida said they never suspected anything as Kennedy had a passport in his undercover name.

Kate Wilson, an environmental activist, was also duped into a long-term relationship with undercover officer (pictured together)

Kennedy and Wilson, now 44, split amicably after a year when she moved to Spain and he began a six-year relationship with another of Eleanor’s friends, Lisa, whose surname hasn’t been revealed.

Lisa, who believed she and Mark were lifetime partners, eventually found out the truth when they went on a campervan holiday to Italy together in July 2010 and found his real passport.

She also found a mobile phone with messages from his children, calling him ‘dad’ – and his double life began to come to light.

Kennedy was then forced to confess his involvement and an official inquiry into the use of undercover officers has been ongoing since 2017 – years after the allegations of the case came to light.

He blamed the Met for ‘failing’ to protect him from ‘falling in love’ with the members of the environmental groups.

Lisa previously said about her relationship with Kennedy: ‘It rips the bottom out of your world.

‘Like everything that you thought you understood about… years of your life.

‘Suddenly, you’re questioning everything, you’re questioning everybody that you know and yourself of course.

Wilson won a landmark tribunal case in 2021 against the Metropolitan Police for breaches of her human rights

Fairbraida said she was friends with Kennedy for seven years and at one point they became lovers

‘Because how did you get it so wrong?’

The victims are now telling their stories in the ten-episode podcast Undercover: The Spy Cops.

Former undercover police officer Neil Woods revealed some of the tactics the undercover cops used in the podcast.

He said: ‘I would seek out the most vulnerable people in those communities.

‘The reason for that is the most vulnerable people are the easiest to manipulate.

‘If that sounds ruthless, well, of course it’s ruthless, a key thing about undercover policing is that is necessitates ruthlessness.’

The NPIOU operated in secret for over 50 years, monitoring over 1,000 political groups and even the family of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in 1993.

Met Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said: ‘We know that enormous distress has been caused as a result of Mark Kennedy’s actions, and we have previously apologised to women who were deceived by him into having sexual relationships. I make those apologies again. These relationships were wrong, an abuse of police power, and should never have happened.

‘We are committed to learning from the wrongs of the past, and there have been enormous changes made to the training, supervision and legal oversight of undercover officers – both in the Met, and nationally.

‘We are fully cooperating with the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry which is examining the actions of undercover officers and their managers over this period in detail.

‘Kennedy’s actions have no place in policing. In today’s Met, we are committed to dealing with those who corrupt our integrity and creating a police service that women can trust, and which upholds the highest professional standards.’

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