Monica on spycop Jim ‘Sutton’ (BBC interview excerpt)

I was quite an intense person, I was very idealistic, very motivated, and I think sometimes Jim was a bit like, ‘what is this person doing here?’, and…

But I loved him in a way, I really felt strongly for him, and I felt like… He had this very needy way of looking at you.

He was somebody whose job was to create an identity that could convince me and my friends that he was somebody that he wasn’t, in order to know what was going on in an environmental direct action group. But not just to know what was going on, but to actually be involved in organising what we were doing at the highest level, for a number of years.

I can never know what was going on inside his head. I don’t think I ever will. At the time I though he had genuine feelings for me, I thought… But now I look back and I think ‘well actually this man was trained, he was a successful police officer, working in a successful career, doing very well in his career, he had a lot of pride in that career - he was duping us all.

Fundamentally I think it was just sex, on lots of levels: to enhance his cover, and a perk of the job.