Undercover police officer was sacked for assaulting partner, spycops inquiry hears | Undercover police and policing

An undercover officer who deceived a woman into an intimate relationship was later dismissed from the force after being found guilty of assaulting her long-term partner, a public inquiry into undercover policing has heard.

Rob Hastings, who infiltrated pro-Palestinian and left-wing protest groups for three years while undercover, was convicted of assaulting his former partner and the mother of his three children in 2014. As a result, he was dismissed by the Metropolitan police for gross misconduct.

The existence of the criminal conviction was revealed in a spy police investigation this week. Hastings was questioned about how he treated another woman, known as Maya, whom he cheated on for a year.

After his relationship with Maya ended in 2007, she disappeared from his life before reappearing seven years later. At this point, he convinced Maya to break up with her then-boyfriend of five years, saying he wanted to continue their relationship and have children together.

Later, in 2015, he had sex with Maya once and left before dawn, disappearing from Maya’s life again. “The next day I visited my family doctor to prescribe the morning-after pill and I found it very distressing,” Maya said in her statement.

On a previous occasion, she had been upset that her husband might have gotten her pregnant and had not offered her any support.

It wasn’t until this week that Hastings revealed to her that he had had a vasectomy some time before their relationship began. He admitted he had been “clearly cruel and selfish” by not telling her.

Hastings was a member of the Special Demonstration Squad, an undercover unit of Scotland Yard, who spied on tens of thousands of mostly left-wing activists for four decades. He went undercover between 2004-07.

He did not reveal his true identity to Maya when they started their relationship in 2006. Maya told the inquest she was vulnerable at the time because she had mental health issues and past trauma and was “very inexperienced with sex and relationships”.

Detailing controlling and manipulative behaviorHe described how she regularly self-harmed and felt suicidal because he often falsely accused her of infidelity and did not speak to her afterwards. They rarely went out together as a couple.

She said: “I often felt like he was using me for sex, which made me feel very negative about myself and my body.” At the inquest he told her he loved her but only told her during sex.

After her relationship ended in 2007, she said she used heroin and crack cocaine as a way to cope with the devastation she felt.

After being released from undercover duty, Hastings continued to work for the Met and joined a counter-terrorism unit.

He pleaded guilty to assaulting his long-term partner in 2014. They had been together for over twenty years, since she was 17. [undercover] distribution. “I was on leave from work because my health deteriorated,” he said. The punishment he received was not disclosed.

At the time, Hastings tried to restart his relationship with Maya but did not tell her about his criminal conviction or his long-term partner. He didn’t discover he was a police spy until 2019.

She said: “I feel used and exploited [Hastings] …I believe [his] that the behavior towards me was emotionally abusive and calculated to undermine my self-esteem and sense of self-worth.”

Hastings, who disputed many aspects of Maya’s statements or said he could not remember what happened, acknowledged that he “treated Maya extremely badly” and apologized to her. He said he was ashamed of his treatment of her and admitted he had caused her “great pain”.

He denied using Maya for his own sexual gratification.

During his testimonyHastings became angry with the investigation’s lawyer, Sarah Hemingway, and complained that her questions were of a “torturous” nature.

At one point he began to object to citizens in the gallery before the inquest, Sir John Mitting, issued a silence order.

One of the main issues examined in the investigation is that undercover police officers often form intimate relationships with women while hiding their true identities. It is known that more than 50 women were cheated on from the 1970s to 2010.