The British army’s top double agent during the Troubles was “very well rewarded financially” and even taken “on holiday” by his handlers, according to a report, which lays bare how he was repeatedly protected at the expense of his victims.
The final report of the £47 million (€53.8 million) Operation Kenova investigation into the activities of Stakeknife, widely understood to be senior Belfast IRA figure Freddie Scappaticci, detailed how they were “massaging his ego” and told him if he stopped working for them “the loss would be felt throughout the intelligence world”.
The holidays took place when his British army handlers “knew he was wanted by the RUC for conspiracy to murder and false imprisonment”, flying by military aircraft and with military identification. There were attempts to relocate him – and discussions around protecting his assets – amid concerns he could face prosecution.
The report concluded that “time and time again, it would appear that protecting the agent outweighed protecting the life of a victim or protecting the right of their families to see justice for the crimes committed against their loved one”.
RM Block
[ ‘I am not going to hide again’: Families of IRA victims react to Kenova reportOpens in new window ]
Scappaticci, who was linked in last year’s interim Kenova report to 14 murders and 15 abductions, was the head of the “Nutting Squad”, the IRA’s notorious internal security unit (ISU). He died in 2023. It is understood he was a double agent from the late 1970s to the 1990s.
He has not been officially identified as Stakeknife due to the UK government policy of “neither confirm nor deny” (NCND) relating to sensitive intelligence issues, but the final Kenova report, published on Tuesday, called on London to do so, saying the circumstances were “exceptional”.
Speaking following its publication, the head of the Kenova investigation, Iain Livingstone, said NCND “cannot be used to protect agents who commit grotesque serious crime”. There was a “compelling ethical case for the UK government to derogate from NCND policy regarding the agent Stakeknife’s identity”.
“It is in the public interest that Stakeknife is named,” he said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was among those who called on Tuesday for Scappaticci to be identified, saying the report was “very clear about the unacceptable nature of state involvement and utilisation of this agent, which led to so many deaths, and it is also very clear about the campaign of terror the Provisional IRA waged within their own communities”.
“The agent should be named, everybody knows who he is.”
Belfast-based solicitors KRW Law, which represents many of the families whose loved ones were killed by the IRA’s Internal Security Unit said the failure to name Scappaticci was “insulting to the families” and “a slap in the face by the state″.
On Tuesday Northern Secretary Hilary Benn declined to identify Scappaticci as Stakeknife due to “ongoing litigation relevant to the neither confirm nor deny policy”.
He said the UK government’s “first duty is of course to protect national security, and identifying agents risks jeopardising this”.
Describing the report as “sobering”, he said Stakeknife’s behaviour was “deeply disturbing” and “should not have happened”, adding that the use of agents is now “subject to strict regulation”.
A summary of a separate review of the so-called Glenanne series of more than 120 killings, which was released as part of the Kenova report, found “no evidence” of collusion between the British state and loyalist paramilitaries in connection with the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, in which 34 people died, but it “cannot be categorically excluded”.
In individual cases linked to the Glenanne series, the report found “clear evidence of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries by state actors” but concluded “no material examined provides evidence of high-level state collusion”.
