Deep Deception: An Aye Festival Collaboration

*Please note that as our speakers both have anonymity in the public inquiry, their faces will not be shown on the live stream, which may be predominantly audio. No photos can be taken during the event*

We're thrilled to be collaborating with the Spit It Out collective for their Aye Festival to bring you a very special event with five women who uncovered the #spycops network, the writers behind Deep Deception.

We greatly admire these women for their courage and tenacity in the face of state violence, and in their fight for change, hoping to ensure that no other women are manipulated and traumatised in the same way.

More about the authors and their book:

These five motivated, articulate and independent women each thought they'd met the love of their life - a true soulmate who shared their values, ambitions and goals. They shared a passion for campaigning and had joined the same political groups. But after many happy years, their partners started to behave strangely, and appeared to be having a nervous breakdown.

Then they vanished, leaving a note explaining that they'd gone abroad to sort themselves out. 'It's not you. It's me.' These women were left confused and traumatised, unable to move on and searching for answers.

Through forensic detective work, they eventually confirmed they had all been in serious relationships with fictional men who were actually married police officers and whose deceit was being funded by the tax payer. The undercover officers were part of a secret political policing unit and took elaborate measures to develop their fake personas. They stole the identities of dead children.

As the women uncovered the truth, their discoveries caused the operations to fall apart dramatically and publicly, enabling them to find each other and take legal action. When they compared their stories, they discovered the chilling overlaps in their experiences.

This is the story of five women whose lives were stolen by state-sponsored spies, but who came together to take on the police, ultimately winning an unprecedented apology and out-of-court settlement.

This event is part of Spit It Out's Aye Festival, do check out the rest of the events HERE!