Undercover cop denies ‘grooming’ woman while living double life

A former police officer has been accused of ‘deceiving’ a 19-year-old activist who he ‘had a sexual relationship with’ during his years undercover.

Andrew Coles, 66, was part of the Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), which infiltrated protest groups.

For over a decade, the group’s activities have been probed by the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI).

In new claims, Jessica – not her real name – reported that Coles had deceived her into sleeping with her, removing her ability to fully consent.

The force’s commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, wrote. ‘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.’

Coles, who is the brother of Reverend Richard Coles, denied any wrongdoing and said the claims were ‘payback’.

He met Jessica in 1991 while attempting to make connections to the Animal Liberation Front. She was 19 and a member of an anti-hunting organisation.

Coles was living under the name of Andrew Davey, claiming to be 24 years old and single. In reality, he was 32, married, and had children.

‘Late in the evenings he would come to the house and we struggled to get rid of him,’ she told the BBC. ‘Then one night, without warning, he went to kiss me.’

She said she didn’t have the ‘confidence’ to refuse him so the pair began dating, with Jessica calling him her ‘first proper boyfriend.’

‘He groomed me,’ she continued. ‘He would sleep in my single bed several times a week, and I didn’t know who he really was. It’s difficult to describe it as rape, but he knew that having sex with me would have been against my consent.’

Coles denied engaging in any sexual contact with Jessica but did admit to sleeping in her bed on one occasion.

‘Her story is not true, absolutely not true,’ he insisted, but later conceded that the weight of the evidence was ‘hard to defeat’.

Speaking to the BBC, he claimed he ‘didn’t behave very differently to [his] own personality’.

In order to be accepted, he took drugs (cannabis) and added that he had squirted a lemon squeezy bottle full of acid at a butcher shop window and stolen chickens from a farm.

‘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,’ he added.

Coles’ job was exposed by his famous brother’s 2014 autobiography, in which the radio presenter said he ‘brought his own drama with him’.

Rev. Richard wrote: ‘He had joined Special Branch and was undercover, living a double life, infiltrated into some sinister organisation while his wife and baby daughter made do with unpredictable visits.’

In 2018, Coles had been identified as operative HN2, going by Davey, by the UCPI.

According to Jessica, this brought her ‘whole world’ to a ‘crashing halt’, as she realised the man she had dated was not who she thought he was.

‘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,’ she shared.

‘He was spying on my parents, my friends. And for what? I was a hunt saboteur. I don’t have a criminal record… and all these officers were just looking at people for rescuing chickens.’

Jessica, who now fosters guinea pigs, is not the only one to have made complaints about Coles during the investigation.

In 2024, while giving evidence, he was questioned over mentions of female activists’ appearance in his intelligence reports.

Investigators asked if the attractiveness of the women was ‘on his mind’, which he denied.

‘No, not for me,’ Coles replied at the time. ‘But it was certainly a matter of… note’.

He was then quizzed over witnesses who had branded him ‘a sex pest’, a ‘creep’ and a ‘lech’.

Some alleged he pursued women and sought unwanted sexual encounters, according to the BBC.

He also wrote a handbook in which he advises on ‘sexual liaisons’ but insisted this was about relationships, which officers were encouraged to break.

In the investigation, three people reported seeing him behave intimately with Jessica, now 54, or emerge from her room in just his boxer shorts.

The evidence included handwritten notes to her friend from 1993, which stated she was ‘still going out with Andy’.

The second note read: ‘[Andy] suggested that we see other people because if I decided to stay here for another year… he wouldn’t be getting enough sex.’

While Coles disputed the legitimacy of the second letter, a forensic graphologist told the BBC they were likely written around the same time.

Coles left the Met in 2012 and has since worked on Peterborough City Council and deputy police and crime commissioner for Cambridgeshire.

He has said that Jessica mounted a campaign against him, labelling him an abuser and protesting at city council meetings.

The former president of Peterborough Conservative Association lost his council seat in 2024 and has twice stood unsuccessfully for re-election.

Criminal charges were not brought against Cole at any point but in 2017 the Met investigated the allegations and ruled that he would have faced a gross misconduct hearing had he still been in the force.

The UCPI is due to rule on Jessica and Coles’ dispute next year, with the entire investigation project reportedly behind schedule and without an end date.

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