Bob Lambert, aka Bob Robinson

A FORMER detective said he was “deeply sorry” after admitting to “deceitful sexual” relationships with animal rights activists he got pregnant while working undercover.

Bob Lambert, aka Bob Robinson, spoke at length about relationships with women who fathered his children in evidence to the Undercover Policing Inquiry this week.

The “spy cop’s” evidence came seven years after the probe first got under way following revelations that officers had children with women they were monitoring while using names of dead babies as alter-egos.

Mr Lambert – who went on to become a lecturer at London Met university in Holloway Road – was a “family man” when he was deployed to the Special Demonstration Squad – a secretive police unit set up to monitor extremist groups and prevent violent disorder.

Mr Lambert told the inquiry on Tuesday: “I am here to try and be as honest as I can be. I’m not looking for excuses at all. I became too immersed in Bob Robinson’s world. I was following instructions. The guidance was to form close friendships with activists that I met – that was crystal clear in my head. Both of these relationships arose from those close friendships. I did what I was asked to do.

“I did it in a way that was part of me, my creation. I don’t intend that as an excuse. Those few psychiatrists who have looked into the pressure undercovers face when they form close relationships – that must have some relevance to my case.

“I do genuinely, sincerely apologise… I’m just deeply sorry. I believe I did my best in the situation I found myself in.”

While living in a Finsbury Park bedsit and spying on the Islington Animal Rights group and London Greenpeace, he became close to a woman named “Jacqui”, who would later bring up his son with him paying child support informally, the inquiry heard.

Mr Lambert told the inquiry that he was confident “Jacqui” was using contraception that “would be effective” and rejected her allegations he had agreed to have a child with her.

Mr Lambert giving evidence to the inquiry

“My understanding was that she was using a form of contraception,” he told barrister David Barr, KC.

“I do not recall using a condom in our relationship. I would have been quite prepared to do that.”

Mr Barr, KC, asked him: “You were an undercover officer indulging in a deceitful sexual relationship weren’t you?”

“Yes,” replied Mr Lambert.

Mr Barr said: “She was a decade younger than you. She had a tough upbringing. She was living alone. She was looking to you for love, stability and support.”

Mr Lambert said: “Not at all. We had a close friendship. We enjoyed each other’s company. It was not first and foremost a sexual relationship.

“Where we really differ is being party to a discussion for her to have a child.”

Mr Lambert recalled his superiors’ “fairly defensive” reaction after informing them of the pregnancy but there was no comeback.

Mr Lambert also had a child with a London Greenpeace activist, known by the inquiry as CTS, while spying on the group that was based in King’s Cross.

“Would CTS have consented to sex with you if she had known who you really were?” asked Mr Barr.

“Certainly, the circumstances in which we met obviously would never have arisen,” replied Lambert. “But to your question, no, I don’t imagine that she would have done.”

On Monday, Mr Lambert told the inquiry: “This is probably my first opportunity to properly apologise to CTS and again to my wife at the time, who knew absolutely nothing about it.

“So in both senses I now, today, have a sense of deep regret and those are heartfelt apologies.”

The inquiry heard Mr Lambert had initially obtained accommodation in Finsbury Park with a view to infiltrating the Islington Animal Rights group as a “stepping stone” to more militant groups.

Asked whether members of the group were engaged in criminal activity, he said: “It was not uncommon in all of my experience in four and a half years to encounter genuine respectable animal rights activists who would never entertain the idea of becoming involved in criminal activity, who felt so passionately about the cause that they would on occasion be willing to condone and accept criminal activity.”

Mr Lambert lost his job as a lecturer at London Met university following the scandal that first emerged in the Guardian in 2014.

The inquiry – already the longest and most expensive in British history – was launched in 2015 and has been hearing evidence since 2017.