Undercover officer allegedly used public money for romantic break in Venice

An undercover police officer is facing allegations that he used taxpayers’ money to pay for a romantic break in Venice with a woman he was deceiving into a long-term relationship, the spycops public inquiry has heard.Carlo Soracchi pretended to be an activist for six years while he infiltrated socialist and anti-fascist campaign groups.Internal documents show that the Metropolitan Police paid for the flights and accommodation for the trip on the basis that he was going with a group of UK campaigners to “consolidate and extend” relations with Italian socialists.But the woman he was deceiving into a year-long intimate relationship told the inquiry he went with her on a “classic romantic break in a city associated with romance”.The woman, known as Lindsey, said there were only two of them on the three-day trip, and they were only apart for 20 minutes. She said they spent their time seeing the sights, appreciating the city’s architecture and eating in restaurants.Lindsey was one of three women deceived into sexual relationships by Soracchi while he was undercover. He also had a two-year relationship with Donna McLean, during which he proposed to her and she accepted. He denies that he did this.This week, Lindsey and McLean, giving evidence to the inquiry, said Soracchi had told a string of lies in his account of his relationships with them.Soracchi, who went undercover between 2000 and 2006, is due to be questioned at the inquiry over four days next week, starting on Monday.Soracchi posing on a bridge over a canal in Venice. Photograph: Undercover policing inquiryThe spycops inquiry, led by the retired judge Sir John Mitting, is examining how police sent undercover officers to infiltrate mainly leftwing campaign groups between 1968 and at least 2010.Many of the men formed relationships with women without disclosing that they were police officers spying on political groups.Lindsey, a socialist, said she fell in love with Soracchi in 2001 but would not have consented to the relationship if she had known his real identity.She described how just before Christmas that year, Soracchi surprised her with plane tickets to Venice. “I remember feeling so overwhelmed and flattered that he had organised this for us. I felt loved,” she said.They stayed in “a beautiful … old apartment” in the centre of Venice that “was just so right for the whole ambience of the visit”, she said.In a written statement, Soracchi has said that the Special Demonstration Squad, the covert police unit for which he worked, authorised and paid for the trip. “The purpose was for Socialist party activists to hold discussions with Italian activists of similar leanings,” he said. The cost of the trip has not been disclosed.An official document recorded that the trip was “used for legend enhancement and also to ascertain Socialist party involvement with Italian [extreme leftwing] anarchist groups”.Hannah Wyatt, an inquiry lawyer, asked Lindsey: “At any point did Soracchi or you meet with any Italian anarchist groups or Italian activists when you were in Italy?” Lindsey replied: “No.”The inquiry also heard that DS Stephen Beels, one of Soracchi’s supervisors, travelled separately to Italy at the same time to support him. Police also paid for Beels’ flights and accommodation in Verona, 75 miles (120km) from Venice.