A retired spy cop has publicly apologised to the women he deceived into sexual relationships, admitting they would not have consented if they’d known who he really was.
Ex-Metropolitan Police officer Bob Lambert apologised during his second day on the witness stand at the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
Deployed in summer 1984 to spy on animal rights groups, he had two sexual relationships in his first six months, fathering a child with a young activist from Hackney.
He said he told his boss during an “off the record” meeting in a pub but no action was ever taken.
“Did they take any interest whatsoever in what was happening?” he was asked.
“No, not that I can recall,” he testified, claiming he was simply told to “manage the situation”.
He told the inquiry he got carried away with “playing the role” of Bob Robinson – the dead child’s name that he hijacked for his mission.
“Bob Robinson was my alter-ego and I became too immersed in that – in Bob Robinson’s world,” he testified.
He said he had been instructed by his bosses to “form close friendships” with activists so he could spy on them.
“I did what I was asked to do,” he testified. “I did it in a way that, you know, was obviously part of me – it was my creation. It was based on me. But it was a result of that.”
“Charade”
Lambert said he posed as a “militant” animal rights activist to infiltrate groups like Islington Animal Rights, Haringey Animal Rights (AKA Badgers), East London Animal Rights and London Greenpeace.
He became so trusted by London Greenpeace that he held a key to its office.
He primarily used those groups as a “stepping stone” to the more radical Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Animal Rights Militia, he said, but still file reports on their “law-abiding” members, including women he slept with.
The first relationship began when he drove a young woman – codenamed CTS by the inquiry – home after a London Greenpeace meeting.
“Would CTS have consented to sex with you if she had known who you really were?” asked David Barr KC, lead counsel to the inquiry.
“Certainly, the circumstances in which we met obviously would never have arisen,” said Lambert. “But to your question, no, I don’t imagine that she would have done.”
“Did you consider that issue at all before having sex with CTS?” asked Mr Barr.
“Not that I can recall,” said Lambert.
“Playing the role”
He told the inquiry on Monday, December 2, that managers had told him sexual relationships were “going to happen”, but he should just “keep it casual”.
But, he admitted on Tuesday, December 3: “I was emotionally involved.”
“There’s obvious tension, isn’t there, between that answer and the fact that your identity was a charade?” asked Mr Barr.
“Well, yes, in one sense,” said Lambert. “But equally, I had – by then, certainly, I had learned to compartmentalise my life to some extent. I was playing the role of Bob Robinson and I was able to reconcile it in that sense.”
Despite that, he said, he had wrestled with guilt not only at deceiving CTS, but also at cheating on his wife.
“Much as I might succeed at the time in carrying that off, keeping up appearances, it clearly – it wasn’t lost on me,” he testified.
“This is probably my first opportunity to properly apologise to CTS – the person behind that cypher – and again to my wife at the time, who knew absolutely nothing about it.
“So in both senses I now, today, have a sense of deep regret and those are heartfelt apologies.”
“Acting”
“Did you give any thought to the fact that you were playing with her emotions?” asked Mr Barr.
“I didn’t feel at the time that I was playing with her emotions,” said Lambert. “I felt I was being both true to Bob Robinson’s identity and true to my own, Bob Lambert.
“I mean, I’m not just saying that. It was the truth that Bob Robinson was a version of Bob Lambert – simply without the police career.
“I had to be that person. I had to be kind and considerate and affectionate – and I was, because I couldn’t be another way... I had no other experience. I had no other sexual experience apart from being a devoted husband.”
Asked again whether he had been playing with the woman’s emotions, Lambert replied: “I don’t think I could say that at the time.”
“Wouldn’t it have been obvious if you had given it a moment’s thought?” asked Mr Barr.
“Again, I can only say that I was acting as Bob Robinson,” said Lambert. “I guess, no, I didn’t give it proper thought.”
He claimed he never told managers about the relationship, but thought they might have got wind of it.
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Pregnancy
Lambert said his first act on deployment was to rent a bedsit in Finsbury Park, enabling him to target groups in Hackney, Islington and Haringey with the legitimate claim of being a local resident.
He also attended “hunt sabs” – where activists disrupt fox hunts – in Essex and Surrey.
At these events, he said, he grew close to a woman codenamed Jacqui, who lived on a Hackney estate.
He admitted she had been a law-abiding activist, but the inquiry heard he had nonetheless filed an intelligence report on her. He said he could not recall whether they were already sexually involved when he wrote it.
“[She was] about a decade younger than you,” said Mr Barr. “She’d had a difficult upbringing. She was living alone. She was looking to you, wasn’t she, for love, stability and support?”
“Not at all,” Lambert responded. “All I can be sure about is that we had a very close friendship, we enjoyed each other’s company and it became a sexual relationship as well.”
In January 1985, Jacqui told him she was pregnant. She has claimed they planned the pregnancy, which Lambert disputed, insisting she told him she was using contraception.
“I was very surprised,” he said. But, he added, he assured her he would stand by her.
He attended the birth but claimed not to recall calling her “difficult” or “fussy” for wanting his name on the birth certificate, or “making himself scarce” when a registrar arrived.
He also disputed Jacqui’s allegation that the sexual relationship continued long after their son was born.
“Allowances”
Jacqui left Hackney and brought up Lambert's son in Dagenham, the inquiry heard.
He paid child support “informally”, he said - but gave contradictory answers so to where it came from.
“I think it came from the money, the cash, that Bob Robinson had,” he initially testified – but later said: “It would have originated from my Bob Lambert’s income. Probably, most likely, the allowances that I claimed.”
“What allowances?” asked Mr Barr.
“I think there was an out-of-London allowance if I was travelling outside London,” said Lambert. “I think there was just a standard Met Police allowance that managers would claim and pass on to me.”
Either way, said Mr Barr: “It would be fair to say that the arrangement led to Jacqui bringing up [your son] on far less than if she had known that you were really a police officer… Did you ever reflect on that discrepancy between what you were actually giving her and what she might be entitled to?”
“I probably did and I wouldn’t have been comfortable, I’m sure,” said Lambert. “But I can’t recall.”
He told the inquiry: “I do genuinely, sincerely apologise to Jacqui. None of our differences in what we recollect from this period really matters much to me now and I am deeply sorry. I believe I did my best in the situation I found myself in.”
Lambert is due to spend all week answering questions at the inquiry, which has heard allegations he masterminded and executed a series of serious crimes, including criminal damage, arson and a co-ordinated bomb plot on Debenhams stores in Romford, Harrow and Luton.
He denies those claims.
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