Former 'spy cop' who had relationship with protester he duped faces new misconduct hearing

A FORMER Met Police "spy cop", who had a sexual relationship with a woman from a campaign group he infiltrated, then married her, is facing fresh misconduct proceedings despite being sacked from the force more than five years ago.

Former Det Con Jim Boyling (above), who worked for the Special Demonstrations Squad (SDS), was found guilty of gross misconduct and sacked after a hearing in May 2018, which determined he began the sexual relationship "without authorisation or policing purpose".

It was after an environmental campaigner, known only as Rosa, said she was tricked into a sexual relationship with the undercover officer and she never would have had she known his true identity.

The woman believed Mr Boyling to be Jim Sutton, when he posed as a fellow activist as part of a plan by the Scotland Yard unit to infiltrate environmental protest group Reclaim the Streets.

The case heard after she later tracked him down in 2001 they resumed the relationship and the officer subsequently revealed his true identity before they married and had two children.

She left him six years later, accusing him of tricking her into the first relationship, before psychologically manipulating her into getting back together and forming a family.

The previous panel also ruled the officer had failed to disclose the relationship to his superiors and he broke strict police rules by admitting to her that he was an undercover officer.

The force has instigated a new hearing in connection with misconduct allegations concerning a six-month relationship with another woman in 1997, known only as Monica. He denies gross misconduct.

The hearing is set to resume tomorrow, Monday, July 10, 2023, after a week of legal arguments.

A Met public notice ahead of the new case said: "It is alleged that Between 1996 and 1997 former DC Boyling entered into and/or maintained, without authorisation and/or without a proper policing purpose, a sexual and/or emotional relationship with a female whilst deceiving her as to his true identity.

"It is alleged that in acting this way former Detective Constable James Boyling breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour."

A Met Police spokesman said: "The public interest in this matter and the severity of the allegations warrant a further misconduct hearing regardless of the outcome of the previous hearing."

The spokesman said it was not unprecedented, but rare for misconduct proceedings to be repeated, but could not point to any other specific time it has happened.

Mr Boyling, who was an officer for 30 years, did not contest the earlier hearing, but told the media at the time it was because he did not wish to drag former colleagues and his ex-wife through the process.

He also said in 2018: "The disciplinary charge from the Met specifies that I had a relationship which constituted misconduct because it was 'without a police purpose'.

"The position of the Met appears to be that a relationship entered into as an operational tactic is acceptable, but a genuine one resulting in marriage and children constitutes misconduct."