An undercover police officer who infiltrated leftwing and animal rights campaign groups has admitted to the spycops inquiry that he had a sexual relationship during his deployment, contradicting his earlier testimony. The officer, who used the fake name Dave Evans, initially claimed he did not engage in any sexual activity while in his undercover identity. However, he later admitted to having a relationship with a woman known as Olivia that lasted at least six months, and possibly two years. The admission came after campaigners presented evidence of the relationship to the inquiry. A central issue of the inquiry is how undercover officers frequently had sexual relationships with women while working undercover without disclosing their true identities. Four of the spies are known to have fathered or are alleged to have fathered children with women they met during their undercover work. Evans was one of about 139 undercover officers deployed by their police superiors to spy on tens of thousands of mainly leftwing activists over more than four decades. He infiltrated the Socialist Workers Party and animal rights groups including London Animal Action between 1998 and 2005. In his first statement to the inquiry, signed four years ago, Evans wrote that he did not engage in any sexual activity while in his undercover identity. However, in a second statement signed this year, he admitted that with the benefit of hindsight, he should have disclosed the relationship with Olivia. This evidence was mainly supplied by Helen Steel, a social justice campaigner who was a defendant in the McLibel case. Steel was herself deceived into a two-year relationship by another undercover officer, John Dines. She spent 18 years searching for Dines; at one point senior police officers spent £2.5 million of public funds to relocate him to ensure she did not find him. Evans was asked by Don Ramble, a barrister at the inquiry, if he had lied in his first statement. He replied that he accepted it was not completely truthful with hindsight. He said he had not originally disclosed the relationship to the inquiry because Olivia was not an activist nor part of any target group, and he did not feel it was relevant. During his covert deployment, Evans pretended to be a landscape gardener as part of his false persona. He met Olivia in 1998 when he attended a college course in his fake identity. At no point did he reveal to her that he was actually a police officer. The inquiry heard evidence that Evans and Olivia together attended social events with animal rights campaigners and at least one demonstration. Olivia is not giving evidence to the inquiry. The spycops inquiry has been scrutinising wide-ranging wrongdoing committed by undercover officers. The government is considering whether the remaining stages of the inquiry, which has been running for more than a decade, should continue in a different format. Victims of the surveillance, however, say that any move to cut short the inquiry would result in a cover-up.