This is an excerpt from a profile last updated in 2016. The full profile can be found here: https://powerbase.info/index.php/John_Dines Dines refused to give live witness evidence, though submitted a written statement. Helen Steel gave evidence at the Inquiry in 2025 and 2026. An updated profile is forthcoming.
HN5 John Dines ('John Barker') was an undercover officer in the Special Demonstration Squad between 1987 and 1991, disappearing early 1992. He infiltrated a range of groups and campaigns, mainly in North London, using the alias ‘John Barker’.
During his time undercover, Dines had a two year relationship with Helen Steel. His abrupt vanishing from her life led to a 19 year search for the truth. In 1994, she found out that he had used the identity of a child that had died at a young age. In 2003, that he had been a married police officer and finally, in late 2010, Helen got the confirmation that Dines had been an undercover officer.
Helen brought a court case against the police with seven other women who were also deceived into relationships with undercover police officers. This eventually resulted in a settlement and an unreserved apology in November 2015. The Metropolitan police acknowledged that the relationships amounted to a violation of the women's human rights, but still refused to confirm or deny that Dines had been a police officer.
Four months later Helen confronted Dines in Australia, after she found out he worked at the Australian Graduate School of Policing & Security as course director of a training programme for Indian Police officers, which included targeting left wing groups.