An environmental campaigner who was duped into having a two-year relationship with a police spy while he was working undercover has confronted him 20 years later after tracking him down to Australia.
Helen Steel traced former lover John Dines to Sydney two decades after he disappeared from her life claiming to have had a nervous breakdown.
He resettled in Australia where for the past five years he has been working at the graduate police college at Charles Sturt University where he is listed as a course director.
Helen Steel traced former lover John Dines to Australia two decades after he disappeared from her life claiming to have had a nervous breakdown
The undercover police sergeant, as he appeared in the early 1980s when he posed as John Barker, a protester against capitalism
Ms Steel is one of a group of women who successfully sued the police force after finding out they had been duped into relationship with police spies.
The Guardian reports that Ms Steel was fooled into having a relationship by Dines, who told her he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. But she was unaware he was a member of a secret Metropolitan police undercover unit, the Special Demonstration Squad.
The unit's aim was to spy on political groups.
Ms Steel was one of two defendants in the McLibel case - in which McDonald’s famously sued two green campaigners over a defamatory leaflet in a landmark three-year high court case, that was widely considered to have been a public relations disaster for the corporation.
Dines vanished from Ms Steel's life in 1992 claiming he was going to South Africa to battle his demons. He told her his parents had abused him, she says.
Ms Steel was one of two defendants in the McLibel case - in which McDonald’s famously sued two green campaigners over a defamatory leaflet in a landmark three-year high court case, that was widely considered to have been a public relations disaster for the corporation
He had in fact left to go back to work at the Met Police headquarters before quitting in 1994 and moving to New Zealand.
The paper reports that the police force then paid for him to be moved to Sydney - aware that Ms Steel was close to finding him. The Met has refused to confirm or deny this.
She had embarked on a long search for her former partner, whom she knew as John Barker.
It was later discovered Scotland Yard had taken the identity of a boy who died from leukaemia when he was eight in 1968.
She confronted Dines at Sydney airport on Sunday. The encounter was captured on video in which he is seen apparently apologising to her.
She told the Guardian's Paul Farrell that his apology was not enough to address her concerns that he may have been lecturing on discredited tactics.
'John was part of the ... special demonstration squad which spied on trade unionists, anti-racists and environmental campaigners.' She said. 'I was extremely concerned that he might now be promoting the kind of tactics that have been used on us in the UK.
'I felt it was important to come here to expose what happened in the UK in case these discredited tactics are being promoted in other countries.'
The pair pictured in 2005 outside court. She did not discover until 2010 that her boyfriend was a police spy
A university spokesman said Dines role was 'administrative only and does not involve teaching'.
In November, Scotland Yard apologised to seven women who were duped into having relationships with undercover police officers, admitting that the affairs were 'abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong'.
The Metropolitan Police agreed to settle multiple civil cases by paying an undisclosed amount of compensation, as well as issuing a public apology.
The force pledged that undercover officers would never again be allowed to enter into such relationships, which were described as 'a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity'.
Five separate police officers had relationships with women under a false identity while on long-term undercover operations to infiltrate groups radical political campaigners.
The men then apparently disappeared once their operations had ended, meaning that their lovers did not discover their true identity until years later.
The MailOnline has contacted Mr Dines for comment.
Dines told the Guardian he gave Ms Steel 'a personal and unreserved apology for all and any hurt that she may have suffered.'
A Met Police spokesman said: 'The MPS is not prepared to confirm nor deny if any individual works or has worked undercover.
'The policy of neither confirming or denying such information has been considered by the courts and found to be necessary to protect the identities of those who work or have worked in covert roles, often in difficult and dangerous situations.
'This work leaves a legacy of risk to operatives, and often to their families. We are providing our fullest possible support to the current Public Inquiry into undercover policing. That is the correct place for the MPS to respond.'
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