Donna McLean's love story begins in 2002.
On September 28 of that year, Britain's biggest demonstration in 30 years saw 500,000 Britons take to the streets against the British invasion of Iraq.
Donna is one of those 500,000 people. She grew up in a politically charged working-class family and, as an adult, worked as a nurse at a drug rehabilitation center in London, surrounded by many friends who were union officials and anti-racist activists.
Donna herself is a member of the Union of Unison, so there is no surprise that she appeared here.
(Donna McLean)
The marching force slowly walked through Piccadilly Street, and Donna noticed a man leaning against the railing of St. James's Park, looking at himself in silence.
According to a friend of the union, this is Carlo Neri, a union comrade from Italy, who had just arrived in London a year ago. He had the same political beliefs as they did and was a good man.
(Carlo Neri)
Not long after contacting Carlo, Donna felt fascinated.
She was 30 years old at the time, had just ended a 12-year relationship, was in a period of emotional vulnerability, and the sudden appearance of Carlo had a huge attraction for her.
They share the same political values, read the same books, and love the same music. Such a like-minded person is really rare in the world.
What's more, Carlo also seems to be a little vulnerable, saying that his father has always been abusive to his mother, and he hates himself for not protecting his mother well. After the death of his mother, he couldn't bear to live in a city with his father, so he came to England.
Donna was very touched to hear this, because she also had a violent father and had an unhappy childhood. This similar experience made the relationship between the two heat up rapidly.
Six weeks later, Carlo became Donna's boyfriend and moved into her apartment.
If "boyfriend" is a position, then Carlo must have a senior certificate, because Donna really can't fault a single thing.
(Donna and Carlo)
The Italian man loved to cook, and every morning, while Donna was still lying in bed and sleeping, he made Eggs Benedict and Hollandaise sauce and called her up to eat.
He is also very generous, whether it is to meet Donna's family or friends, he will carefully prepare gifts to please everyone.
He was very social, romantic and funny, and although not many people he knew in London, Carlo liked to entertain Donna's friends, which made her feel that he was trying to get to know himself and fit into her circle.
Carlo was also helpful, his job was a locksmith, and after finding the door to Donna's apartment unsafe, suggested she change the lock. He also suggested that friends in other unions change the lock, because he is Donna's boyfriend and everyone trusts him, so many people have changed.
Of course, this also means that Carlo has the backup key for everyone.
Three months after the first meeting, Carlo proposed to Donna.
It was at a big party, and all the union friends and political activists in Donna's circle came, and Carlo was wearing a Christmas shirt given by Donna's mother and greeting all the people she didn't know.
At the climax of the party, a romantic love song sounded from the music player, and Carlo sang and knelt down on one knee in the center of the dance floor.
"Will you marry me, Donna?"
Donna didn't expect this, she screamed with excitement, shouting "Yes! ”。 They hugged each other tightly, like countless ordinary and happy newcomers in this world.
(Carlo in Italy)
For most of 2003, Donna and Carlo had a great time. Donna's mother and sister liked him very much, and his sister invited him to attend his college graduation ceremony, and his mother bought snow crystal balls every time she traveled to a place, because Carlo liked to collect them.
On Carlo's 33rd birthday, he took Donna to her hometown of Bologna in Italy for an early honeymoon.
There were no obstacles between them, and on the mantelpiece he placed some picture frames, which contained pictures of his son and his sister. The son was born to him and his ex-girlfriend and he visits him every other week. Donna wants to meet, but Carlo says her ex-girlfriend won't let her.
As for his sister, she was a freak living in the city of Peterborough, spending most of her time at home drunk and smoking, depressed.
It was all a cause for concern, but they were too far away to threaten themselves, and Donna was confident that the two would be smoothly together.
But at the end of 2003, Carlo changed.
He became distraught and grumpy, and began to drink non-stop, telling him about his bad childhood as he drank.
Without any notice, he would suddenly disappear and would not be contacted for a whole week. He later said he urinated in an Italian police car and was arrested and jailed.
Carlo spent Christmas 2003 in Italy and returned to tell Donna that his father had just died, and at the funeral he heard his sister say something horrific: it turned out that her father had sexually assaulted her when she was a child, causing her to have a nervous breakdown!
"What he said was terrible." Donna said in an interview years later, "Because he described the process in detail and looked shocked, I believed it." ”
Carlo said that she was going to move out to be quiet, because knowing that he was hurt inside, Donna did not stop it.
A few months later, Carlo texted that he wanted to kill himself and Donna did everything she could to help him. He also wanted to see her, a few times a week, and that went on for half a year.
Donna last met Carlo in November 2004, late thursday night, when they went to a cinema in central London to watch an Italian feature film about the breakdown of their marriage.
Donna thought he would stay, but Carlo asked the taxi driver to send her away. Two weeks later, he sent a letter saying that he would love her forever, but unfortunately couldn't be together.
Later, an acquaintance told Donna that Carlo had moved back to Italy. She thought the two would never see each other again, but in 2006, she met a familiar stranger.
On the London Underground, she saw a man in a baseball cap and a motorcycle jacket sitting across from her. The man's hair was disheveled, his body was littered with band medals, and he looked like a fan of German death metal.
These were different from Carlo, but from the eyes to the face to the hands, the man was clearly Carlo's appearance, and Donna was confused about this for a long time.
It wasn't until July 2015 that Donna understood what it meant.
That day, an old union friend invited her to a conference in London, where Donna discovered that Carlo had been identified as an undercover cop by political activists and the Union Institute!
Why do the police lurk in the union?
This is actually an old policy of the London Metropolitan Police, which, starting in 1968, arranged for more than 140 police officers to infiltrate more than 1,000 British political organizations to monitor the movements of the organizations and prevent overly radical actions.
There are many ways for the police to infiltrate the organization, the most common of which is to disguise themselves as allies and fall in love with female activists.
Yes, cheating on feelings is also a tactic used by police officers, and this was the case of Mark Kennedy that broke out in 2010.
(Mark Kennedy)
An environmental activist alias Lisa has been associated with her boyfriend, Mark Stone, for 6 years, a radical environmentalist who regularly attends protests and clashes with police.
In environmental circles, Stone is known as "The Flash" because of his wealth, his prodigal appearance is also very pleasing to girls, and he has many environmental girlfriends before Lisa.
(Mark Kennedy, who was too deep into the play, was injured by the police during the protest)
In July 2010, while Lisa and Stone were on vacation in Italy, Lisa was alone rummaging through his suitcase for sunglasses and found an old passport with the name "Mark Kennedy" written on it.
The picture shows Stone's face and next to it says he has a child. Lisa finds a phone that Stone doesn't use very often and finds that two children have emailed him calling him "Daddy."
(Mark Kennedy and Lisa)
Lisa asks Stone what's going on, saying he was a former drug lord and the child was left behind by an old friend. Lisa believed it at the time, but then thought it was too absurd, and her friends found the child's birth certificate and found that Stone's real profession was a police officer, and his real surname was "Kennedy".
The boyfriend of 6 years is an undercover police officer, which really shocked the British environmental circle.
(Mark Kennedy after removing his disguise)
In addition to Lisa, environmental activist Kate Wilson was also tricked by Stone, who found out that more than 50 women had been cheated on by undercover police, including Stone, and at least 3 of them had their children.
(Kate Wilson and Mark Kennedy)
The undercover cops have a process of infiltration, and they are basically married men who have a house in London and can go home regularly.
In order to deceive the feelings of female activists, they will make up a set of tragic childhood stories to win sympathy. They will also learn about their hobbies and strengths in advance, pretending that the two have the same interests.
After becoming boyfriends, they contact as many people in the circle as possible, relying on their girlfriends' connections to contact the core of the organization, so as to inquire about confidential information and report it to the Police Agency.
(Metropolitan Police)
In 2012, some people suspected that Carlo was also an undercover police officer.
Three years later they confirmed that Carlo's real name was Carlo Soracchi, an Italian-speaking British policeman.
Donna sat in the conference room and felt the world spinning, she had thought that the two had broken up thanks to Carlo's perverted father, but she did not expect that everything was fake.
(Carlo Soratx)
The more she thought about it, the more she found that the love between the two followed the template, tragic childhood, the same hobbies, social masters, and finally escaped by her sister's sexual assault case. It turns out that the story has a good ending from the beginning.
Donna's sister also recalled that at the graduation ceremony, as soon as the British national anthem was played, Carlo reflexively stood up until the people around him told him to sit down.
Friends also thought that obviously the profession is an ordinary locksmith, but Carlo has a steady stream of money like the rich second generation, luxurious banquets and gifts are given at will, and this financial resource is clearly from others.
They investigate deeply and discover (unsurprisingly) that Carlo and Donna were married when they were in love, and that their wife had recently become pregnant when they first met. The child in the frame was not his ex-girlfriend's, it was his wife's.
A few years after breaking up with Donna, Carlo also divorced his wife, probably sensitized by his wife. The police who carry out this kind of activity cannot tell their wives about "pretending to be in love", so they cheat on both sides.
Carlo's father also did not die on Christmas Day 2003, he is still alive and does not live in Bologna, but in London.
His sister was not sexually assaulted at all, nor was she drunk and depressed. She is the owner of an upscale delicatessen in north London, with a handsome husband and a happy home.
In the whole thing, only his sister's affair made Donna breathe a sigh of relief, and everything else made her feel like she was living in a nightmare.
(Donna)
She couldn't understand why Carlo was targeting her, she wasn't a senior member of the union and wasn't active in the protests.
The biggest possibility is that she has a lot of union friends, all of which are to spy on her friends, and she was not long in love at the time, and it was easier to take advantage of the void.
Donna joined the group protesting the undercover police, Police Spies Out Of lives, which is made up of women who were deceived, and demanded an apology from the Metropolitan Police.
（Police Spies Out Of lives组织）
In 2018, with the help of a lawyer, Donna started a lawsuit. In order to expand her influence, she gave media interviews, gave speeches, published books, and constantly put pressure on the National Police Agency.
In October of that year, Donna made a presentation of evidence at the Foxton Police Department, telling her three hours of details about their relationship (which was difficult because it was necessary to describe their sex life) that nearly broke down.
After all sorts of investigations, the Metropolitan Police finally admitted last year that they had sent Carlo to set up an emotional hoax, formally apologizing to Donna and paying compensation.
(London Metropolitan Police apologises to deceived woman)
On Tuesday, environmental activist Kate Wilson, who was deceived by Mark Kennedy, also received a £229471 compensation from the Renton Police Department. The Power Investigation Tribunal found that the police violated her human rights in five ways, grossly demeaning and humiliating her.
(Kate Wilson wins the case)
Because of the sheer number of such cases, Judge Sir John Mitting has led a public investigation into undercover police officers since 2014 and is still ongoing. The next hearing will be held in May this year.
Donna knew she would see Carlo again in 2025 because he would have to appear in court to face a public investigation. Although she could ask him questions, she didn't think it made sense.
"These people are first-rate liars, so what's the point when I ask?" I don't believe I can finally hear any truth. Donna said.
Fortunately, Carlo's affair did not destroy her trust in others.
"It used to hit me hard and destroy my worldview, but then I slowly recovered. Overall, I still have a lot of trust in people. As for the bad guys and bad guys, I believe there are more good guys challenging them.
Strong, inspiring progressives will move on, and we will not be knocked down. ”