An undercover police officer is facing allegations that he used taxpayers\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
Carlo Soracchi pretended to be an activist for six years while he infiltrated socialist and anti-fascist campaign groups.<\/p>\n
Internal documents show that the Metropolitan police<\/a> paid for the flights and accommodation for the trip on the basis that he was going with a group of UK campaigners to \u201cconsolidate and extend\u201d relations with Italian socialists.<\/p>\n But the woman he was deceiving into a year-long intimate relationship told the inquiry he went with her on a \u201cclassic romantic break in a city associated with romance\u201d.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s architecture and eating in restaurants.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> and she accepted. He denies that he did this.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Soracchi, who went undercover between 2000 and 2006, is due to be questioned at the inquiry over four days next week, starting on Monday.<\/p>\n Soracchi posing on a bridge over a canal in Venice. Photograph: Undercover policing inquiry<\/p>\n The 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.<\/p>\n Many of the men formed relationships with women without disclosing that they were police officers spying<\/a> on political groups.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n She described how just before Christmas that year, Soracchi surprised her with plane tickets to Venice. \u201cI remember feeling so overwhelmed and flattered that he had organised this for us. I felt loved,\u201d she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n They stayed in \u201ca beautiful \u2026 old apartment\u201d in the centre of Venice that \u201cwas just so right for the whole ambience of the visit\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cThe purpose was for Socialist party activists to hold discussions with Italian activists of similar leanings,\u201d he said. The cost of the trip has not been disclosed.<\/p>\n An official document recorded that the trip was \u201cused for legend enhancement and also to ascertain Socialist party involvement with Italian [extreme leftwing] anarchist groups\u201d.<\/p>\n Hannah Wyatt, an inquiry lawyer, asked Lindsey: \u201cAt any point did Soracchi or you meet with any Italian anarchist groups or Italian activists when you were in Italy?\u201d Lindsey replied: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n