The Metropolitan police has named Jim Boyling and Bob Lambert as two of the officers who had relationships with women while living under assumed identities to infiltrate activist groups in the 1990s.
According to the BBC, this is the first time the London police force has publicly named any of its undercover officers. The Met’s usual policy of neither confirming nor denying identities was debarred by the High Court.
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Bob Lambert was believed by activists to be named Bob Robinson. He had a relationship in the 1980s, while undercover, with a woman he met at an animal rights party.
A solicitor for the women, Harriet Wistrich, said the naming of the officers was a "partial victory" and described it as the "first extremely significant development" in the case.
The Met says that long-term sexual relationships between officers and members of the public were never one of its "authorised tactics".
A woman suing a third man, who was not identified today, said her world "fell apart" when she found out the man with whom she had discussed having children and growing old together was not a "real person".
She told the BBC: "These guys were saying that they loved us, that they wanted to be in our lives for the rest of their lives and yet they knew that their posting was going to be ending in just a few years time and that they were going to disappear from our lives and leave us bereft.
"That is not love, that is abuse."