EUROPE
UK Cops Stole a Dead Baby's Identity to Spy on Protest Groups
By Ben Bryant January 7, 2015 | 10:55 pm
A dead newborn child's identity was stolen by undercover UK police officers working for an elite unit that infiltrated left-wing groups, London's Metropolitan Police Service has revealed. The newborn was among a number of children whose identities were stolen by the Met's covert Special Demonstration Squad, with others aged one, four through 14, 16, and 17. Only the ages of the children have been released so that the identities of the officers are not compromised. The identities were disclosed after repeated requests by Duncan Hames, a Liberal Democrat member of Parliament for Chippenham, who hoped that he would be able to console a constituent who feared that his 15-year-old daughter's identity might have been stolen. Because no 15-year-olds were identified, he was able to reassure the parent — but it took Hames nearly two years just to get police to release the ages of the children. This woman was awarded $685,737 after learning her boyfriend was an undercover cop sent to spy on her. Read more here. The Met secretly authorized the theft of identities from dead children for three decades, issuing covert officers with fake passports and authorizing them to infiltrate protest groups — all without consulting or informing the children's parents. The practice was revealed in 2013 following an investigation by the Guardian, which established that generations of police officers had searched national birth and death records for the right matches.