A murder investigation has been launched in Barking, Essex (Picture: PA)

Police officers working undercover can have sex with their targets if it is in the interest of ‘preventing serious crime’, lawyers for the Metropolitan police have claimed.

Officially Scotland Yard condemns such behaviour and says it is ‘not an authorised tactic’ but lawyers acting for the force said: ‘It might in some circumstances be necessary and proportionate to authorise an undercover operative to engage in sexual contact in order, for example, to maintain cover, prevent serious crime and even save life’.

The argument was put to High Court appeal judges in a case where a group of women claim they were duped into having long-term sexual relationships with undercover police officers.

Undercover cop: Mark Kennedy claims he was ‘hung out to dry’ by the Met police (Picture: Channel 4)

They are suing the Met for emotional trauma caused when spies secretly infiltrated their environmental campaign. Three of the women are ex-lovers of Mark Kennedy whose exposure sparked a series of inquiries in 2010 and led to the collapse of a criminal trial.




Their lawyers say the cases ‘raise serious questions about police misconduct and the extent to which police officers can invade the personal, psychological, and bodily integrity of members of the general population’.

Judges heard the case last week and have yet to make a ruling.