MET TOLD TO CHANGE POLICY ON CLAIMS
The Metropolitan Police cannot use its policy of "neither confirm nor deny" (NCND) in response to damages claims brought by women who claim they were tricked into forming relationships with undercover officers.
The five are among a number of people who want compensation for emotional trauma allegedly caused by officers infiltrating environmental activist groups.
Their claims for deceit, assault, negligence and misfeasance in public office arise out of long-term and intimate sexual relationships they had with four men who - unknown to them - were members of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), between 1987 and 2007.
Last month, their lawyers told Mr Justice Bean at London's High Court that, although the Metropolitan Police had issued a general denial and asserted it was not liable, it had not provided "any defence whatsoever" to any of the allegations of fact but instead asserted a policy of NCND.
Today, the judge said that the Met would not be entitled to rely on the policy in relation to whether an individual "is or was an undercover officer" in order to avoid pleading to the allegations made by the claimants either generally - that Met officers, as part of their work, used false identities to engage in long-term intimate sexual relationships with those whose activities they wished to observe - or the specific allegations made by three of the women in respect of two officers known to them at the time as "Jim Sutton" and "Bob Robinson".
He added that the Met should not be required to admit or deny whether either of two others, named as "Mark Cassidy" and "John Barker", was an undercover officer or had the real name alleged.
In March, the Met withdrew its bid to have the claims thrown out - on the basis that its NCND policy meant it could not properly defend itself - after the Home Secretary announced a public inquiry into undercover policing.
