Disclosure

Unravelling the Spycops Files

By: Kate Wilson

Narrated by: Charlotte Worthing

'GRIPPING . . . DISTURBING . . . INVIGORATING' OLIVIA LAING, GUARDIAN

'ASTOUNDING . . . DEVASTATING . . . COMPELLING' STUART JEFFRIES, OBSERVER


'It was exciting when it started, then comfortable and domestic, and over time we grew apart. If it had been real, our relationship wouldn't have made a chapter in a memoir. But Mark was a fictional character, contrived by the British state to violate me and undermine the values I held dearest. And the entire time, EN31 was sitting around the corner, writing it all down, watching our lives unfold.'

In 2003, British police infiltrated a group of idealistic young environmental activists, forming sexual relationships and spying without warrant on hundreds of innocent civilians.

Kate Wilson fought back. She took the Met to court, at times battling alone without funding or legal representation, enduring bullying, psychological intrusion and further state surveillance. It took her nearly twenty years to uncover the eerie truth about Britain' s secret political police.

In her own words, and those of the officers who documented her every move, this is Kate's story.©2025 Kate Wilson

Critic reviews

A gripping account of an activist who discovered her former boyfriend was a police spy - and how she turned the tables (Olivia Laing)

Astounding . . . A devastating picture of official incompetence wedded to misogynistic sexual license. [Wilson] meticulously describes a police operation costing millions of pounds (Kennedy alone was claiming about £200,000 annually in expenses, for everything from curries to condoms), which invaded the privacy and bodies of women who purportedly threatened this country's stability, and aimed to curb their legitimate right to protest against warmongers, fat-cat capitalists and the destroyers of our climate. At least 27 women in their 20s and 30s were targeted. Many of them, Wilson relates, were so traumatised by their experiences they became unable to forge intimate relationships . . . Wilson pieces together the truth from often heavily redacted police files as well as her own memories and those of friends. This makes for a compelling piece of literature . . . both formally inventive and bracing to read (Stuart Jeffries)

This is not just about a few sleazy guys tricking a few idealists into bed . . . This is a secret police unit using enormous amounts of public money to create fake people, with fake passports, bank accounts and driving licenses, and using them to deceive women not just into sex, but into long-term romantic relationships. They moved into their homes, became involved with their families, proposed marriage, and had children with them, before disappearing forever (Laurie Penny)

Reads like a thriller, painting a shocking picture of gross police overreach (Rebecca Vincent)

The British police thought it could use and discard Kate Wilson, but it messed with the wrong woman. Her courage, determination, clarity and insistence on justice are absolutely awe-inspiring (Oliver Bullough, author of BUTLER TO THE WORLD)

When I say "everybody should read this book", I don't mean everybody who is interested in human rights, in police ethics, in feminism, in the future of the planet, in freedom of speech and the right to protest, in security, in women's security, in policy and monitoring, in budget decisions, in what the law is for, in sexual politics, or any other kind of politics. I mean everybody (Louisa Young, author of YOU LEFT EARLY)

Unforgettable, devastating, essential. I couldn't put it down. Proves the systemic nature of the British state's abuse of women beyond any doubt (Asa Winstanley, Electronic Intifada)

This story of the betrayal of a brave eco-activist is a searing page-turner. The criminalisation of Kate Wilson and her fellow campaigners was truly shameful. Disclosure firmly places the British police on the wrong side of history (Peter Hain, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland)