‘I found out the government was paying someone to sleep with me’

When Naomi fell in love with Mark Stone, she had no idea that he was being paid to spend time with her.

The former couple met through their joint involvement in the same environmental campaigns and Naomi was instantly impressed by ‘Stone’. His shared passion for making the world a better place was one of his positive attributes.

‘He was such a kind, loving, and warm person,’ she recalled to Metro.

‘Nothing was too much trouble. He would really listen to me and if I cared about something, he cared too.’

After a few years of friendship, they became romantically involved in 2003. ‘Our relationship was so positive and happy. I felt that he could be a significant part of my future,’ Naomi stated.

Two years of dating later, he unexpectedly ended things with a letter. ‘I was proud that we were able to stay friends. He even went on to date a close friend of mine,’ she told us. However, in 2010, she found out that every aspect of their time together was fake, even his surname transpired to be a lie.

Mark Stone was actually Mark Kennedy – an undercover cop, who was instructed to infiltrate an environmental campaign group to gain information about their plans. Becoming romantic with environmental activist Naomi was another way to gain trust.

‘The thing that really gets me is many people were organising that and it was paid for by the state. People pay their tax and national insurance, and then they’re provided with healthcare and protection. This was not protection, this was the opposite of that,’ she said.

Kennedy told Naomi he was working as a rope access technician and so would be required to leave for long periods – during these trips, he was returning home to his wife and children. When Kennedy was having a romantic evening with Naomi that was his job.

‘Finding out the truth was a terrible process because I had to re-remember everything with the new information,’ she said.

‘I physically went into shock. I went numb. It was almost indescribable.

‘I couldn’t understand it. I felt scared actually, because when you understand that the police force has been in your life, and in your bed, it is completely destabilising. You don’t know not just who you can trust, but what you can trust.’

Describing the extent of his lies, Naomi shared: ‘He came to my brother’s wedding, we went on holiday together, there were many parties and conversations. He was being paid to do those things with me. Any gifts were put through as expenses. He introduced me to his uncle – I found out that was his case officer.’

‘I did not ever consent to a sexual relationship,’ she firmly stated.

‘If I had known who that person was, what they were doing and why they were there, I would never have consented to that.

‘It is a terrible, shocking thing to find out that your own government has been paying somebody to sleep with you. I’m still processing that, it’s going to be a lifelong thing.’

Naomi wasn’t Kennedy’s only victim, and he wasn’t the only undercover officer. Her mistreatment is part of a much wider story, which is shown in the ITV documentary The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed.

For over 40 years, a secret unit of undercover police was paid to spy on ordinary members of the public. This included more than 60 law-abiding female victims, who were often just involved in campaigning for environmental causes. The women were deceived into intimate relationships and had no clue they were part of covert operations. Police officers stole the identities of deceased children to create new aliases and even fathered children with the women they spied upon whilst undercover.

The ‘spycops scandal’ is the subject of an almost decade-long £88 million public inquiry into their tactics.

Creepy similarities between the women’s experiences come to light from the way they were seduced into their relationships, to the almost identical letters they received when they were abandoned – and ghosted – by the men they loved.

‘I got a very amazing, warm letter telling me how much he valued me as a person, and what a special time we’d had together. He said he’d always be there for me as a friend,’ Naomi said of her own letter.

‘When we all read our letters together, we could see that they were trained to write certain things and to make us feel certain things. They were very manipulative to make us believe that they were on our side.’

The officers employed similar tactics to make their way into the women’s worlds too. They made themselves indispensable by owning vans and offering to drive the women and their fellow campaigners home. They would often share family trauma so they’d appear vulnerable and open – Naomi was told a false story by Kennedy that his dad had abandoned him.

‘When I first found out about the deceit I felt so shocked, isolated and couldn’t believe it, but meeting these other women, hearing their stories, and working to make sure our voices are heard has been powerful,’ she added.

‘We’ve had to really chip away at this and we’ve got such a connection from doing it together.’

Their tireless work has exposed the secret unit and the institutional sexism that enabled it. As a result, some compensation was awarded to the women, and in 2015, they finally received an apology.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said: ‘Thanks in large part to the courage and tenacity of these women… it has become apparent that some officers entered into long-term intimate sexual relationships which were abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong.

‘These should never have happened. They were a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity.

‘They were deceived – pure and simple. Whether or not genuine feelings were involved on the part of any officers is entirely irrelevant and does not make the conduct acceptable.’

The apology left Naomi feeling proud that they’d acknowledged it wasn’t the women’s fault, but she says their work is far from done. She points out that the public enquiry that began in 2015 – and was set to take three years – still isn’t complete. Naomi is yet to be asked to contribute to the investigation.

‘I haven’t seen the behaviour change that should have come with it,’ she added. ‘The apology was to try to get us to go away but we’re not going away.

‘We are still waiting for so many answers. They are still hiding and covering up so much. Real change can’t happen until they are completely honest.

‘What are the fake names of all the undercover officers? How many were there? I still haven’t seen none of the files that must have been held about me and my family and my friends.’

The women would also like to see the covert human intelligence sources act that was passed in 2021 to be scrapped so undercover officers have fewer permissions.

In 2025, Naomi lives a happy life with a supportive partner and their children.

‘I have been very lucky that I was with my current partner when I found this out – she’s a special person.

‘I’ve had a different journey from some of the other women who haven’t had a relationship since because their trust is so damaged,’ she explained.

However, the actions of the police still had consequences for her, including a struggle to make new friends.

‘For a long time I thought about what happened to me every second of every day,’ she remembered.

‘I don’t think about it every day anymore but I would say that whenever I see a police car, a police officer, or I hear about the police, that’s when it comes back. It is always with me on some level.’

The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed is on ITV1, STV and ITVX from March 6

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.