Bob Lambert

Just like James Bond, Bob Lambert was a spy who specialized in seduction. But the women he wooed weren’t sexy assistants working for maniacal super-villains. They were real-life people, used and abused in one of the most corrupt undercover operations in UK history.

Lambert was a member of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a British unit that spied on protesters the government labeled subversive. In the early ‘80s, Lambert was assigned to keep an eye on England’s radical environmentalists, but he first needed a dead kid. Before going undercover, SDS officers stole identities of deceased children with similar names and birth dates. Lambert chose Bob Robinson, a seven-year-old who died in 1959.

After investigating Robinson’s story, Lambert prowled around the environmentalist scene, posing as a London Greenpeace activist. (Despite the name, London Greenpeace is unaffiliated with Greenpeace.) He attended group meetings and protests, and that’s how he met Jacqui, a twenty-something animal lover who fell for Lambert’s charms. Jacqui was phase two of Lambert’s plan: seduce an environmentalist and start a relationship. Soon, the two even had a son named Francis. It was the perfect cover. Lambert vanished every so often, supposedly to visit his dad with dementia. Actually, he was visiting his wife and two kids.

Lambert eventually joined up with radicals from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and captured several eco-terrorists. However, some believe Lambert went too far with his method acting and actually helped ALF bomb several retail stores. Whether or not that’s true, Lambert’s mission soon came to an end, and in 1987, he abandoned Jacqui and his young son.

Jacqui didn’t see Lambert again, not until over 20 years later when she saw his picture in the paper. Since their days together, Lambert had served as head of operations at SDS and was currently working in the world of academia. Then a group of activists learned his true identity and outed the spy in public. With journalists now digging in his past, Lambert admitted that he’d seduced Jacqui and three other women as part of his undercover operations.

He wasn’t the only one. Numerous SDS officers stole identities from deceased children, and at least nine used sex to gain information.

Now that he was exposed, Lambert apologized for his actions and even befriended Francis, the son he’d left behind. But Jacqui wasn’t so forgiving. She and 10 other women sued the Metropolitan Police Force, and in 2014, Jacqui was awarded £425,000 for her pain and suffering.

Today's Reflection:

Men approve of premarital sex

-until their daughters are born.

Live Long and Prosper...