welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america the islamic state group — and around the globe. has died in syria. my name is ben bland. a paramedic told the bbc our top stories: that the child died from a lung infection. the baby son of shamima begum, ms begum had hope to return to britain but was stripped the british teenager who joined of her citizenship. the islamic state group, prime minister theresa may has has died in syria. appealed to mps to back her brexit deal in parliament next week, as the eu's chief brexit negotiator venezuela has now been paralysed by a national power cut outlines a clarification and for more than 2a hours. reassurance of the bloc‘s position. michael barnier has suggested that the government calls it sabotage. northern ireland could stay in the customs unions. venezuela has suffered the worst blackout in decades, with most of the country paralysed by a power cut, which the government is calling sabotage. hospitals and food companies have been badly hit and hundreds of passengers are still stranded hello and welcome to bbc news. the baby son of shamima begum, at the main international airport. the teenager whojoined the islamic state group, has died in a detention camp in syria. a paramedic told the bbc that the baby, now on bbc news, a story of undercover policing, and the officers paid to spy on political activists. bbc wales investigates why some had

relationships with women, even fathering children with them. for years, women like lisa were spied on by police — sent into their lives to infiltrate every aspect. this was somebody who i was planning my life with. i would never have consented to have a relationship with and have a sexual relationship with a police officer. and certainly never somebody who was being paid to pass on information about myself and my friends. lisa's group and other protestors from wales were targeted by undercover police. they had a whole back room team of officers making sure that their deceit was successful. nobody stands a chance against that. rosa was also lied to.

she even had children with an officer. my partner was played by an actor, through every sexual act that occurred was a paid police officer on duty specifically deceiving me. tonight, those involved tell their full stories on tv for the first time. and they ask if anyone will ever be held accountable for the abuse they suffered. green energy right now. green energy for the future. the whole story of undercover policing may never have come to light if it was not for a welsh woman. in the early 2000s, lisa, which is not her real name, was an activist protesting against genetically modified crops and deforestation.

for the first time on this scale, there's a direct challenge to one of the foundations of our society — the power industry. she took part in this protest, and others like it, to highlight climate change. the intention of the demo was to shut down the power station, which i don't think actually happened. lisa and a man she believed to be a fellow activist, called mark stone, started a relationship in 200a. on this protest, and others, he was a very willing and convincing participant? absolutely, he was a key organiser in lots of ways. he facilitated all of the transport and a lot of the logistical planning for this kind of thing. he was really in there and in the thick of it. there was no reason to believe he was the source of the police information.

what lisa didn't know is that stone was leading a double life. he was only pretending to be an activist. he was in fact an undercover police officer, spying on environmentalists and sending reports back to his superiors at the met police. there's lots of things that now i would find very suspicious in retrospect. but at the time he talked a lot about having a difficult upbringing, and quite a fractious relationship with his family which was the reason why i never met his mother, or i never met his family. in 2009 — after six years together — stone abruptly upped and left lisa. i did see him coming apart. i think it's a really cruel way to leave because it leaves somebody behind really worried for your well—being. he had a break down, as far as i was aware, and went away to live in america with his brother for a few months. then, out of the blue, stone turned up.

he'd been gone for three months. back together, stone and lisa went on a climbing holiday in the italian alps and it was there that lisa made a discovery which would bring her world crashing down. lisa was unaware that stone was part of a secretive unit which was first established by the metropolitan police in 1968. it was set up in the wake of violent protests against the vietnam war. for decades, policemen, and a handful of women, had been sent to spy on political groups and activists, such as environmentalists. more than 1,000 organisations were spied on and individuals like lisa targeted and, they would say, sexually abused. officers had relationships

with them, sometimes for years, as the state embarked on a spying policy on an unprecedented, and almost industrial scale. one of those spies infiltrated a group that used to meet at a bar in cardiff. there was no loving relationship. every sexual attack —— sexual acts that occurred was a paid police officer, deceiving me. there was no genuine relationship. rosa now lives

in west wales. but in 1999 she lived in london. a political activist involved in animal rights, antiracism and the green movement. there is me. just trying not to allow the police to kick it off, you know? he had been in this group about four years before i was in it. he seems to be my life partner. he seems to be some kind of blueprint i didn't even know i was looking for. for ten months rosa and her partner, an man who called himselfjeff sutton, were in a relationship. we

we re sutton, were in a relationship. we were talking about children, we were talking about moving back to wales. it was closing the circle for me. there was this longing to go home to wales. then sutton dropped a bombshell. in echoes of what mark stone had done to lisa, he said he needed to get away. rosa thought he was having a breakdown. after months missing, sutton got back in touch, sending rosa postcards and letters. it probably does you good to escape from my control freakery. sorry if i was a bit wired during the last few weeks. i hope i didn't hurt you. rosa was doing her own detective work. she could find no trace of the family sutton said he had. so, after nine months, she decided to go to south africa to try to find him.

there was the being deeply in love with my partner, and a chance to sort that out. there was the being worried that he was telling me he was at risk and wasn't coping and trapped and feeling responsible. and then there was needing answers for me. i could get on with my life then. i could move on. lisa was also trying to move on with her life. mark stone had returned and later they went on holiday together. but a chance discovery would change everything, and go on to expose undercover policing. we'd gone on a trip to italy and we'd gone climbing. and we were in his van and he'd gone off mountain biking and in the glove box were some documents and, crucially, his passport. and as you do when you come across somebody‘s passport you take a look at the picture. sure i must have seen a passport earlier but never seen this one — this one had his name as mark kennedy, whereas i'd known him as mark stone.

unknown to her, stone's covert deployment had been terminated three months earlier and as a result he'd chosen to quit the police. what lisa also discovered in the van shocked her even more. the really difficult thing for me was seeing it mentioned on that passport that he had dependents and that made the ground absolutely open up beneath my feet to find out that my partner had children that i didn't know about, and that's huge. and it led me to root around a bit more to find something and i found a phone that had some messages on it from two children calling him dad. her suspicions roused, lisa later began to dig into the background of the man she'd shared her life with for six years. she checked through birth certificates and found that mark stone didn't exist.

what was here on his child's birth certificate which really stands out and gave you a shock? so, this was the bit that was absolutely the heart—stopping moment. so it says markjohn kennedy, his place of birth — then his occupation — police officer. and on his daughter's birth certificate the same, it says markjohn kennedy, father's occupation police officer. and that was absolutely heart—stopping. the bottom had fallen out of my world. rosa had returned from south africa. she was still searching for her partnerjim sutton and clues led her to south london, and the offices of the secret police

unit sutton worked for. just two days later he reappeared. it was monday, november 5th, 2001 — a date she'll never forget. rosa was working her first day in a book shop on this street. bang on 3pm in the afternoon in the fiction section — again if you made a film out of it you'd say this is not realistic — in he walked. and i put my hand over my mouth and i pointed at him. he asked if he could give me a hug, and he did, and he said, "oh you're really shaking, you're really thin." and he said, "you know, don't be angry." and then i said like no, no, i'm notangry, and ijust needed him not to run, i needed to know what happened to my life, what the hell was going on before he ran. rosa now believes this was no coincidence. she thinks all her enquiries about sutton had triggered a response from the police and he had been sent to find out what she knew. she says the encounter forced sutton to confess he was living a lie. he told her his real name was jim boyling.

he also admitted he was an undercover police officer. why didn't you walk away? i wanted to know, i wanted answers, i wanted him to start spilling his guts and telling me what the hell had been going on. at the time, rosa believed the story jim boyling had told her — that he supported what the activists were doing and wasn't spying on them as environmentalists, but was undercover investigating an alleged attempted murder. none of this was true? no, none of this was true. even though he was coming clean? he wasn't, no, no. it was a whole new deceit. rosa says boyling told her he needed help to escape the police and she says he manipulated and deceived his way back into her life. within two weeks ofjim boyling returning, rosa was pregnant. this is why it's so upsetting the way he depicted it. he told me he was a police officer and i said alright then, let's have kids.

and it's so not what happened. so, for a second time now you've been deceived by this man. yes, yes completely. in order to access medical help, she says boyling made her change her name by deed poll, so his police bosses wouldn't find out he was still in a relationship with her. i gave birth to my daughter with the midwife calling me by a complete false name saying, "don't you worry dah, dah, dah, don't you worry." and wanting to scream at her to stop calling me that. and my child was being born into this complete mess. looking at the birth certificate hoping to get some grasp of reality and i didn't recognise a single name on it. and it's like — it had gone from him not existing to me not existing. boyling denies making her change her name by deed poll. but they had a second child, and even got married, but she says he manipulated

her into this as well. some people who don't know that he was lying to you for a second time might question your decision, the fact that you went back to him, you married him and you had children with him. i think not understanding how damaged i was, not understanding what was occurring, how believable anything he would have said would have been more believable than truth. i knew my partner, i slept next to him, i knew my society, i knew they didn't do such things to that degree in political movements. and the idea that my partner had never existed and was fabrication, played by an actor, sent in by the state, in order to spy on my as peaceful green activist, was ludicrous and shook everything i believed in. the more that lisa delved into mark kennedy's life, the more shocking revelations she discovered. he had a home in ireland

where he lived with his wife and two children. armed with all of this new information, lisa and her fellow activists invited kennedy to a meeting. they planned to confront him. when he turned up, he was very cagey. he just danced around the truth for ages. expanding on some of the previous lies that he'd said. and i said to him, "we know you are a police officer." and it's then that he broke down. he was in tears and i was in tears. it was a hugely difficult and emotional evening. it's very difficult memories to be thinking about. the confirmation that mark kennedy had been working undercover completely blew the lid off this form of secret policing in wales and england. dozens of undercover officers were subsequently unmasked. but the final straw came when it was revealed police had spied on the family of the murdered

london teenager stephen lawrence. the then home secretary, theresa may, branded the revelations "profoundly shocking and disturbing" and she ordered a public inquiry. it aims to look at the justification and authorisation of operations as well as the impact on individuals. the first thing i need to know is was i targeted deliberately? was he sent in to target me or was he sent in to target the wider group and was ijust incidental to that or something that facilitated that for him? i want to know how much the rest of the unit knew about our relationship. were they there when we went on holiday? were they listening to our phone calls? were they reading text messages and emails? the unmasking of mark kennedy had a domino effect.

0ther undercover police officers were exposed as well. her life with boyling deteriorated to such an extent she sought help from a women's refuge. they were finally divorced in 2009. this man who you thought was your life partner, what are you feelings towards him now? i don't think it's about my feelings towards him. i was searching for my partner, and to get answers, and instead of getting answers, i got more deceit and got trapped in an abusive relationship, which had already been abusive but increasingly so. it's too painful thing to answer. and lisa? she'd discovered that her partner was, in fact, a married father—of—two called mark kennedy. he'd not only had been living a lie, she says he also had been spying on her. i feel like those years were stolen from me. they were stolen from me by the metropolitan police,

who knew this was happening and it appears to have been part of their tactic. this deception, this relationship, this abuse, wasn'tjust being perpetrated by one person. it wasn'tjust between myself and mark, it was the whole police department. it was who else was watching and listening and complicit in that? so i almost think there's a case to answerfor conspiracy to assault and abuse, or conspiracy to rape. it's been difficult for me to think of it in those words but i think actually that's what it was when it comes down to it. mark kennedy declined to be interviewed for this programme. but he has previously denied that his relationship with lisa was state—sanctioned abuse. i know that the relationship that we had — outside of what names were — was probably one of the most loving experiences i've ever had.

i was lying to her about my name and who i was, yes. and it's very hard to know that's really hurt her and she's terribly upset about that. and it's something which i'm still finding very hard to deal with and will for a very long time to come. he also denies filing intelligence reports on lisa. kennedy was exposed by activists and in the press. the story was headline news for weeks. kennedy left the metropolitan police. but what about those who stayed in the force? 0fficers likejim boyling — he'd had a relationship with rosa and had fathered two children with her. last year, jim boyling was sacked by the met for gross misconduct because of his relationship with rosa. it's not clear how much boyling's superiors knew about their relationship.

but the disciplinary panel said, "the system of control and governance over officers like dc boyling was severely lacking." they had a whole back room team of officers making sure their deceit was successful. they had training in manipulation. nobody stands a chance against that. boyling himself turned round and said having the relationships, it's needed for cover. it's just an instrumental tool using the public in that way. and people going in have needs. so what, we are just unwitting, unpaid prostitutes? boyling disputes rosa's version of events, and challenges her account of their relationship. he also insists she was not "a subject of any police interest". three years ago, the met paid compensation to seven women, including rosa and lisa. the force also apologised, saying the sexual relationships were "abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong."

i acknowledge that these relationships were a violation of the women's human rights, an abuse of police power and caused significant trauma. crucially, the met said it would not have authorised officers to have sexual relationships. the forming of a sexual relationship by an undercover officer would never be authorised in advance, nor indeed used as a tactic of a deployment. but last year, the met admitted that kennedy's handler and line manager knew about and "acquiesced to" kennedy having a sexual relationship with another female activist. that admission has left women like lisa and rosa to question the met‘s apology. the police are contradicting themselves at every turn. if you, or i, did that we would lose credibility.

i needed them to apologise to my children as well, notjust to me, for what they were put through before we escaped to refuge. the met insists undercover policing is still a valid tactic. it blames individual officers for abusing their positions. the public inquiry into undercover policing in england and wales began here more than three years ago, but it's yet to hear any evidence and it's not expected to report for another four years. there are also fears amongst many of those involved that the whole thing could amount to nothing more than a whitewash. they need to recognise what they've done is wrong and most importantly for me i think it's to know that it isn't still continuing.

some other public inquiries have failed and new public inquiries have been announced. for example, it took the hillsborough families 20 years to gain the truth. all three of the former undercover officers in this programme no longer work for the police, but they are expected to give evidence to the public inquiry. for the women who formed such intimate relationships only to be betrayed, they are still trying to rebuild their lives. when people have had bereavements, you need to know what happened to a love one before you can really properly move on. and in this case, it almost feels like there was a bereavement but i haven'tjust found out that my partner has died, ifound out he never existed in the first place and the strange places that sends your head, i can't really explain.

if there's something positive i can do with all of this, it's to try and stop it happening in the future. try and stop if for the next generation of women going out there. the woman and the children are left to defend themselves and deal with it on their own against someone who's so convincing and is trained in it. they can wreak havoc and there's no escape. we have that haunting us, haunting us. hello. there is lots of weather coming our way this weekend, some rain at times, some snow, too.

it will be windy throughout the weekend. remember when high pressure was in control? it was all quiet? it's well to the south of us now. it's low pressure, the atlantic is in charge of our weather. weather disturbances coming through. briefly milderfor some across southern parts of the uk during saturday, but we are all back into the colder air on sunday on a strong and cold wind. so the weather elements this weekend — it is going to be windy, widely gusts around 40—50 miles an hour, it will feel chilly in the wind, some wet weather at times — notjust rain but snow too — but also, we will all get to see sunshine at some stage of the weekend. this is how we are starting the weekend — temperatures at their lowest across northern england, northern ireland and scotland. close to freezing in places. wintry showers in scotland. an area of rain and hill snow coming out of northern ireland and running through northern england first thing, so a bit of snow to the pennines out of that. further showers running into northern ireland, across northern england, northern and western scotland on through the day. again, wintry on the hills but also

some decent sunshine. let's take a look at things at 3 o'clock in the afternoon — very strong gusty winds across the far north of scotland and northern isles. a bit of wet weather on and off during the day into 0rkney. these are the showers running into scotland. again, wintry on the hills. not too many to the east of scotland. there in northern ireland, they should ease from northern england at this stage of the afternoon. strong gusty winds right across the uk and actually, a fair amount of fine and occasionally sunny weather across the bulk of england and wales, bar the odd passing shower. look at this, though. 0n through saturday evening, some rain pushing north through a large part of england and wales. a bit of snow snowdonia, into the peak district. and temperatures at their lowest the further north you are away from that, and the frost setting in, particularly into scotland, as sunday begins. but it's not a cold night further south where you are seeing the rain. all of that has to clear away sunday. it will be a slow process as well. that will take an area of rain and hill snow across the uk during sunday, and that snow in scotland particularly will be falling to relatively low levels, so don't be surprised by that.

but the chance of seeing some significant snow piling up in the hills in scotland on sunday but elsewhere, you could see some some sleet and hail out of these showers, but there will also some sunny spells around, too, on what will be a windier and colder—feeling day on sunday. low pressure still in charge, briefly quiet on monday. then tuesday into wednesday, a deep area of low pressure passing just to the north of the uk, making it very windy once again. so a brief lull on monday. it clearly isn't going to last very long. that's your forecast.