RELATIVES of deceased children whose identities were stolen by spycops to build fake personas are suing the Metropolitan Police. 

The “ghoulish” tactic was used by at least 42 undercover officers over the course of 30 years.

Officers not only adopted the child’s name and date of birth; they also visited their hometown and researched family members to familiarise themselves with the identity they were stealing. 

Four families have now started legal action against the Met, claiming that the force misused private information and intruded on their personal grief, causing damage to their mental health. 

Learning that their relatives’ identities had been used in this way “retriggered” the pain caused by the loss of their loved ones, a lawyer for the families told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday.

Solicitor Jules Carey said: “Not only are many of them suffering a fresh grief by their child’s death being brought up in this way, their memories of their lost child or their sibling has been significantly tarnished and interfered with.”

One of the families involved in the legal action is that of Kevin Crossland, who died in a plane crash in Yugoslavia at the age of five in 1966. Kevin’s sister and mother also died in the crash. 

The father Malcolm, now deceased, survived the crash with multiple injuries. His widow Lisa Crossland told Today that she didn’t think her husband would have been “able to cope” had he known his son’s identity was stolen by a police officer.  

“He never, never forgot his family; he regularly visited their grave and this would’ve been too much,” she said. 

“How did someone allow this practice to carry on? These families experienced the worst loss that any loving parent can go through. Over the years, the pain eases, but never goes away.”

The Met has been accused of a “callous disregard” for the consequences of its actions for bereaved families, after repeatedly refusing to contact them.

The tactic was used by officers serving in the Met’s top secret Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) which infiltrated hundreds of protest groups over 40 years.

Abuses carried out by SDS offices and those in the National Operations Intelligence unit are being investigated by the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which started last month. 

In a statement, the Met said: “The claims relate to the historical use of deceased children’s identities by undercover officers. The Metropolitan Police is investigating the claims and is unable to comment further at this time.”