An undercover police officer told “grotesque and cruel” lies while emotionally manipulating two women he had tricked into long-term sex, the spy cops’ public inquiry heard.
Carlo Soracchi admitted that he tried to provoke empathy from one of the women by claiming that his father had abused his sister. He also told him that his father had died when he was actually alive.
Soracchi also admitted to deceptively receiving taxpayer money to cover the cost of a trip to Italy to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the woman, Donna McLean.
During the investigation he was questioned about his deployment, which involved infiltrating left-wing and anti-fascist activists between 2000 and 2006.
During that time, McLean had a two-year relationship with him. The inquest heard how he asked her to marry him and told her mother he wanted to have a baby with her. After accepting the marriage proposal, she discussed the details of the wedding, including seating and menus, with Soracchi.
Other witnesses have said that the engagement was public knowledge within their circle of friends. Soracchi admitted to having a relationship with her, but denied asking to marry her or have a baby with him.
McLean didn’t know that he was already married with a child, or that he was an undercover police officer who would have to disappear at the end of his deployment.
In 2003, Soracchi flew with McLean to Bologna for a long weekend to celebrate Valentine’s Day and his supposed birthday. Police documents showed he claimed £477 for the cost of the trip. His managers stated that this expense was justified because he met with Italian socialists as part of his infiltration of left-wing groups.
When David Barr, lead lawyer for the investigation, asked him if he had misled those responsible about the true purpose of this trip, he accepted, accepting that it was “purely pleasurable.”
Soracchi said that during Christmas 2003 he traveled to Italy to care for his father, who had suffered a stroke. In the early hours of New Year’s Day 2004, he called McLean and lied when he told him his father had died.
After her father’s supposed funeral, Soracchi told her that her sister had suffered abuse at the hands of her father for years. Barr said this was “particularly calculating and unpleasant” as McLean had previously confided in Soracchi that he had had a physically abusive father.
Soracchi said he wanted to solicit her empathy while she was apparently suffering a nervous breakdown and wanted to end the relationship, against her wish. Asked if he had deliberately exploited McLean’s empathy, he agreed, adding: “We were undercover cops, that’s what we did.” He accepted that his behavior had been “grotesque”.
McLean said his deception of her was “cruel, unnecessary, inhumane, malicious and has had a profound and ongoing impact”; Soracchi accepted that this was true.
Soracchi also faced questions about an apparent discrepancy in the rent he claimed from the police budget for the one-bedroom flat he shared with McLean in Maida Vale, London, for more than a year.
Soracchi said he gave £685 to McLean each month as part of the rent and other costs. However, McLean said the total rent for the flat was £320 a month and he contributed up to £200.
When Barr asked him if it was true that he was “making a considerable profit.” He replied, “No, it is not.”
He tricked a second woman, known as Lindsey, into a year-long relationship. He is alleged to have used taxpayers’ money to pay for a romantic getaway with her in Venice in 2001.
The investigation examines the conduct of some 139 undercover agents who infiltrated political groups over more than four decades.
