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A campaigners' banner outside The High Court

By June Kelly and Judith Burns

BBC News

The use of undercover policing tactics from the 1960s onwards were not justified and the unit should have been disbanded early on, a report says.

Ex-senior judge Sir John Mitting said most groups infiltrated by the Special Demonstration Squad posed no threat.

His report for the undercover policing inquiry details tactics such as forming sexual relationships and using the names of dead children for cover.

The end did not justify the means, the report concludes.

The SDS was tasked with infiltrating left-wing political and activist groups.

Sir John describes the impact of SDS officers' actions on hundreds of people's lives. In some cases officers had sexual relationships while undercover and used dead children's names to create their false identities.

He says had the use of these means been known publicly at the time, the SDS would have been brought to a rapid end.