To gain credibility as an activist, he formed friendships with other movement members; he also embarked in long-term relationships with women as a means of establishing a cover story.

[16] Though he had earlier denied that reports in The Guardian newspaper were true, in July 2013 he acknowledged that he had conducted four such relationships under false pretences, saying that he "made serious mistakes that I should regret, and I always will do.

When the boy was two years old his father vanished, and she told BBC News she had received psychiatric care after learning the officer's real identity.

Scotland Yard had previously refused to either confirm or deny whether Bob Lambert was a Special Demonstration Squad operative, despite his own admissions to journalists.

[5] In June 2012 Lambert was accused in Parliament by Caroline Lucas MP of planting the fire bomb that caused £340,000 worth of damage to the Harrow branch of a Debenhams department store in 1987 as part of his undercover work in the Animal Liberation Front.

The Guardian newspaper has suggested that Lambert might have been prosecuted under his alias, and thus perhaps gave false testimony in court, for having distributed "insulting leaflets" outside a London butcher's shop.

[7][26] The Derbyshire Constabulary launched an investigation called Operation Herne in 2011 which combined many allegations against the police including this one and those pertaining to the death of Stephen Lawrence.

[17] In 2013, it was reported that while undercover with London Greenpeace, Lambert had co-authored the 'McLibel leaflet', which resulted in a defamation lawsuit from McDonald's Corporation that took ten years to resolve.

He deployed officers into Reclaim the Streets as well as campaigns for justice by families of black people whose deaths were mishandled by police, such as Stephen Lawrence.