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    An undercover police officer used his fake identity to deceive a woman into a 19-year relationship in which they became partners and had a child together, the Guardian can reveal.    
    The officer concealed his real identity from the woman for the duration of that period, never telling her his real occupation, and using his fictitious identity on the birth certificate of their son.    
    In 2020, after the couple were engaged to be married, the woman discovered that her fiance, whom she believed to be a businessman, was in fact a police officer who had subjected her to a sophisticated deception lasting almost two decades.    
    The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating senior officers at Avon and Somerset police, who knew about the undercover officer’s relationship with the woman as far back as 2013.    
    They appear to have waited at least seven years before informing the woman that the person she knew as her fiance had been using a fake identity given to him for use in covert police operations. In a statement, the IOPC confirmed it was investigating the case.    
    The woman, whom the Guardian is referring to as “Mary” to protect her identity, does not want to speak publicly about the experience. However, her relatives say that she is “a shadow of the person we used to know”.    
    “This whole thing has broken her,” Mary’s sister said. “She has expressed suicidal thoughts. She cries daily. She does not sleep. She is really fearful.”