A former Metropolitan Police officer who spent years infiltrating protest groups under a false persona has denied misconduct while maintaining that his covert work protected the public from dangerous extremists.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has admitted the force accepts former officer Andrew Coles engaged in an intimate relationship with a 19-year-old activist while working covertly under an alias.
Sir Mark Rowley stated:
The MPS has accepted that Andrew Coles had a sexual relationship with Jessica and is disappointed he did not tell the truth to the inquiry.
Infiltration hidden behind fake identity
Coles, now 66, served in the Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstration Squad, a secret unit tasked with monitoring protest networks.
Operating under the undercover cover name Andrew Davey, he claimed to be a single 24-year-old when he met an anti-hunting campaigner in 1991 during an operation attempting to build links to the Animal Liberation Front.
In reality, the officer was a 32-year-old married father.
The campaigner, known under the pseudonym Jessica, disclosed that Coles integrated himself into her personal life after pursuing her during activists’ events.
Jessica shared:
They created this person, and they deployed him into my life, and my bed. It’s a massive violation. It was like being raped by the state.
Tactics deployed to protect cover identity
To gain acceptance among radical activists, Coles acknowledged taking cannabis, stealing farm chickens, and spraying acid from a squeezy lemon bottle at a butcher shop window.
He insisted that his covert operations fulfilled a crucial security role despite the serious accusations made against him.
The work was certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but I protected a part of society from some very dangerous people, and I think I did a good job
Andrew Coles, former police officer
Misconduct claims face official inquiry
Coles denied engaging in sexual contact with Jessica, though he admitted sleeping in her bed on one occasion and conceded that the weight of opposing evidence was hard to defeat.
Three witnesses reported seeing the officer intimate with Jessica or emerging from her room in boxer shorts. Forensic analysis of handwritten letters from 1993 also supported claims that the pair had been dating.
The officer’s secret background was originally exposed in a 2014 autobiography written by his brother, radio presenter Reverend Richard Coles.
A 2017 internal police investigation concluded that Coles would have faced a gross misconduct hearing had he not retired from the force in 2012. Criminal charges were never brought against him.
Politics followed career in law enforcement
After leaving police service, Coles served on Peterborough City Council and worked as deputy police and crime commissioner for Cambridgeshire.
The former Peterborough Conservative Association president lost his council seat in 2024 following activist protests over his past cover work.
The Undercover Policing Inquiry is expected to deliver its ruling on the matter next year.