THERE was “no clear rationale, justification or necessity” for spycops to adopt the “repulsive practice” of stealing the identities of deceased children, a public inquiry heard today.

The disturbing tactic was used by undercover officers serving in the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a secret unit of the Metropolitan Police which infiltrated protest groups over 40 years. 

At least 42 officers are known to have stolen elements of dead children’s identities to use while undercover, including their names, dates of birth and even details from their lives. 

Heather Williams QC, representing bereaved families, told the Undercover Policing Inquiry today that her team had searched thousands of official documents “in vain” for evidence to justify the adoption of the “callous” policy.

Ms Williams said that each of her clients had experienced the pain of losing a child, including one who had lost a two-day-old baby. 

“More recently, the families have also suffered the horror of learning that their loved one’s identity was used by an undercover police officer,” she said. 

The inquiry, headed by Sir John Mitting, is considering the conduct of about 139 officers who infiltrated more than 1,000 political groups. The ongoing second round of hearings is focusing on undercover operations between 1973 and 1982. 

Ms Williams said families had learned from earlier in the inquiry that, between 1968 and 1972, none of the SDS officers about whom they had heard evidence had relied on the identity of a deceased child.

Police lawyers previously argued that using real people’s identities was an “essential operational imperative” to maintain cover at a time when physical birth records were stored in a public database at Somerset House. 

But Ms Williams argued that this was not borne out by the evidence, saying that the practice had even proved dangerous to the police. 

She referred to the case of Detective Constable Richard Clarke, who had to be withdrawn after members of his target group confronted him with copies of the birth and death certificate of his assumed identity. 

Ms Williams said that despite DC Clarke’s unmasking, there was no reassessment of the tactic’s use.

“On the contrary, this apparently grossly abusive technique became the embedded cultural practice of the SDS,” she said. 

The inquiry continues next week.