Woman deceived into relationship tells spycops inquiry the trip was not to meet Italian socialists, as Carlo Soracchi claims
An undercover police officer is facing allegations that he used taxpayers’ money to pay for a romantic break in Venice with a woman he was deceiving into a long-term relationship, the spycops public inquiry has heard.
Carlo Soracchi pretended to be an activist for six years while he infiltrated socialist and anti-fascist campaign groups.
Internal documents show that the Metropolitan police paid for the flights and accommodation for the trip on the basis that he was going with a group of UK campaigners to “consolidate and extend” relations with Italian socialists.
But the woman he was deceiving into a year-long intimate relationship told the inquiry he went with her on a “classic romantic break in a city associated with romance”.
