Operation Kenova

Last updated

Operation Kenova is an ongoing criminal investigation into whether the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland failed to investigate as many as 18 murders in order to protect a high level double agent codenamed Stakeknife who worked for the Force Research Unit, while at the same time he was deeply embedded and trusted within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). [1] The 2017, initial investigation was headed up by Jon Boutcher the former Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police until his appointment as Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland in 2023. [2] It is now led by Iain Livingstone, former Chief Constable of Police Scotland. [3]

Contents

Stakeknife, a Government asset and widely acknowledged to be Freddie Scappaticci led the IRA Internal Security Unit, also known as the Nutting Squad that had killed around thirty people while Scappaticci was involved with it. [1] Senior British officers had referred to Stakeknife as the "golden egg" due to the calibre of information he supplied. [1]

Research by Panorama suggested that Stakeknife was so highly prized that other agents were sacrificed to conceal his identity. [1] Panorama claimed that Joseph Fenton was executed by the IRA despite Stakeknife informing his handlers that Fenton was to be killed. [1] The authorities failed to react and did nothing to prevent the murder. [1]

In July 2020 Boutcher expressed concern with the British Government's idea to close most legacy investigations and provide full investigations into only a few. He questioned whether the plan complied with the law. [2]

A year later, investigators working for Kenova announced that they had obtained new DNA evidence relating to the murder of Thomas Oliver. [4] [5]

Kenova interim report

On 8 March 2024, the Kenova interim report by Boutcher was published. On Stakeknife, it says, "The number of lives he saved is between high single figures and low double figures and nowhere near hundreds". He cost more lives than he ever saved. He was involved in criminality, terror and murders, that could not be defended. Boutcher said Scappaticci should have been prosecuted and called upon the Government and Republicans to apologise to all of the affected families who had suffered abduction and murder. The interim report lists a total of ten recommendations. [6]

The Kenova investigation has so far taken seven years and cost over £40,000,000. Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O'Neill reiterated her apologies for all the lives that were lost, during The Troubles. [7] Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, stated that the Government's position was to await the Kenova final report, before taking any decisions.

Operation Denton

Operation Denton is an offshoot of Operation Kenova which examines actions of the Glenanne gang and its links with security forces. [8] It was initially headed by Jon Boutcher. [8]

In May 2024 Iain Livingstone, now head of Operation Denton, said that there was no doubt of collusion between the Glenanne gang and British authorities in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. [9]

Related Research Articles

"Stakeknife" was the code name of a high-level spy who successfully infiltrated the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) while working for the Force Research Unit (FRU), a British military intelligence unit. Stakeknife allegedly worked as an FRU informant for 25 years.

The Force Research Unit (FRU) was a covert military intelligence unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps. It was established in 1982 during the Troubles to obtain intelligence from terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland by recruiting and running agents and informants. From 1987 to 1991, it was commanded by Gordon Kerr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dublin and Monaghan bombings</span> 1974 terrorist bombings in Ireland

The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of co-ordinated bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Three car bombs exploded in Dublin during the evening rush hour and a fourth exploded in Monaghan almost ninety minutes later. They killed 34 civilians, including an unborn child, and injured almost 300. Together, the bombings were the deadliest attack of the conflict known as the Troubles, and the deadliest attack in the Republic's history. Most of the victims were young women, although the ages of the dead ranged from 4½ months up to 80 years.

Freddie Scappaticci was an Irish IRA member named in the Kenova report as a British Intelligence mole with the codename "Stakeknife".

The Internal Security Unit (ISU) was the counter-intelligence and interrogation unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). This unit was often referred to as the Nutting Squad.

The Reavey and O'Dowd killings were two coordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians died after members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, broke into their homes and shot them. Three members of the Reavey family were shot at their home in Whitecross and four members of the O'Dowd family were shot at their home in Ballydougan. Two of the Reaveys and three of the O'Dowds were killed outright, with the third Reavey victim dying of brain haemorrhage almost a month later.

Joseph "Joe" Fenton was an estate agent from Belfast, Northern Ireland, killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) for acting as an informer for RUC Special Branch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Jackson</span> Northern Irish loyalist (1948–1998)

Robert John Jackson, also known as The Jackal, was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary and part-time soldier. He was a senior officer in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) during the period of violent ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. Jackson commanded the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade from 1975 to the early 1990s, when Billy Wright took over as leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Hanna</span> Northern Ireland loyalist (d. 1975)

William Henry Wilson Hanna MM was a high-ranking Ulster loyalist who founded and led the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) until he was killed, allegedly by Robin Jackson, who took over command of the brigade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Francis Green</span> Irish Republican

John Francis Green, was a leading member of the North Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was killed in a farmhouse outside Castleblayney, County Monaghan, by members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). According to Intelligence Corps member Fred Holroyd, Special Reconnaissance Unit officer Robert Nairac was involved in Green's killing. Green's was one of the 87 killings attributed by the Pat Finucane Centre to the group of Ulster loyalist paramilitaries, Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary officers known as the Glenanne gang. No one was ever prosecuted for the killing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenanne gang</span> Informal alliance of Ulster loyalists active in the 1970s

The Glenanne gang or Glenanne group was a secret informal alliance of Ulster loyalists who carried out shooting and bombing attacks against Catholics and Irish nationalists in the 1970s, during the Troubles. Most of its attacks took place in the "murder triangle" area of counties Armagh and Tyrone in Northern Ireland. It also launched some attacks elsewhere in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. The gang consisted of soldiers from the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), police officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Twenty-five UDR soldiers and RUC police officers were named as purported members of the gang. Details about the group have come from many sources, including the affidavit of former member and RUC officer John Weir; statements by other former members; police, army and court documents; and ballistics evidence linking the same weapons to various attacks. Since 2003, the group's activities have also been investigated by the 2006 Cassel Report, and three reports commissioned by Irish Supreme Court Justice Henry Barron, known as the Barron Reports. A book focusing on the group's activities, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, by Anne Cadwallader, was published in 2013. It drew on all the aforementioned sources, as well as Historical Enquiries Team investigations. The book was the basis for the 2019 documentary film Unquiet Graves, directed by Sean Murray.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert McConnell (loyalist)</span> Ulster loyalist paramilitary

Robert William McConnell, was an Ulster loyalist paramilitary who allegedly carried out or was an accomplice to a number of sectarian attacks and killings, although he never faced any charges or convictions. McConnell served part-time as a corporal in the 2nd Battalion Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), and was a suspected member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

John Oliver Weir is an Ulster loyalist born and raised in the Republic of Ireland. He served as an officer in Northern Ireland's Royal Ulster Constabulary's (RUC) Special Patrol Group (SPG), and was a volunteer in the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). As a member of the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade led by Robin "the Jackal" Jackson, Weir was a part of the Glenanne gang, a group of loyalist extremists that carried out sectarian attacks mainly in the County Armagh area in the mid-1970s.

Robert John "R. J." Kerr, was a leading Northern Irish loyalist. He served as the commander of the Portadown battalion of the Ulster Defence Association's Mid-Ulster Brigade. Along with the Mid-Ulster Ulster Volunteer Force's brigade commander Robin Jackson, Kerr was implicated in the killing of Catholic chemist William Strathearn. Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Patrol Group officers John Weir and Billy McCaughey named him as one of their accomplice; however, neither Kerr nor Jackson were questioned by police or brought before the court, for "reasons of operational strategy". Weir and McCaughey were convicted of Strathearn's killing.

Thomas Oliver was a 43-year-old Irish farmer who was tortured and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in July 1991, reportedly for passing information to the Garda Síochána. However, in the wake of the Stakeknife case it began to be suspected that Freddie Scappaticci – who ran the IRA's Internal Security Unit, which was responsible for torturing and killing Thomas Oliver – killed Oliver to conceal his identity as a double agent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1989 Jonesborough ambush</span> Provisional IRA attack on RUC officers during the Troubles

The Jonesborough ambush took place on 20 March 1989 near the Irish border outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, were shot dead in an ambush by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. Breen and Buchanan were returning from an informal cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers when Buchanan's car, a red Vauxhall Cavalier, was flagged down and fired upon by six IRA gunmen, who the policemen had taken for British soldiers. Buchanan was killed outright whilst Breen, suffering gunshot wounds, was forced to lie on the ground and shot in the back of the head after he had left the car waving a white handkerchief. They were the highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during the Troubles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillcrest Bar bombing</span> Bomb attack by the UVF in 1976

The Hillcrest Bar bombing, also known as the "Saint Patrick's Day bombing", took place on 17 March 1976 in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, detonated a car bomb outside a pub crowded with people celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. Four Catholic civilians were killed by the blast—including two 13-year-old boys standing outside—and almost 50 people were injured, some severely.

Margaret Perry was a 26-year-old woman from Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland who was abducted on 21 June 1991. After a tip from the IRA, her body was found buried across the border in a field in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland, on 30 June 1992. She had been beaten to death. Her murder has never been solved.

Events from the year 2023 in Northern Ireland.

Jon Boutcher QPM is a senior UK police officer. He was appointed as Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on 7 November 2023. He served as interim Chief Constable from 12 October 2023 whilst the recruitment process was ongoing to appoint someone permanently. He was the Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police from 2015 until April 2019. He also leads Operation Kenova, a series of historical investigations into murders which occurred during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Batchelor, Tom (11 April 2017). "Police 'failed to investigate 18 murders in Northern Ireland to protect IRA mole'" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  2. 1 2 O'Neill, Julian (30 June 2020). "Jon Boutcher voices "extreme caution" over legacy idea". BBC News . Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  3. ↑ "Ex-Police Scotland chief to lead Kenova probe as Jon Boutcher takes up top PSNI job". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 12 October 2023. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  4. ↑ Carroll, Rory (19 July 2021). "Police find new forensic evidence in case of farmer murdered by IRA". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "Investigation into IRA murder of Tom Oliver uncovers new DNA evidence". TheJournal.ie . Press Association. 19 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  6. ↑ "Operation Kenova Interim Report | Police Service of Northern Ireland".
  7. ↑ "First Minister Michelle O'Neill reiterates apology for all lives lost in Northern Ireland Troubles". UTV – ITV News. 8 March 2024.
  8. 1 2 O’Keeffe, Cormac (30 June 2022). "Garda chief to assist British probe into loyalist murder gang". Irish Examiner . Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  9. ↑ Kearney, Vincent (17 May 2024). "Dublin-Monaghan bomb gang investigator says 'there was collusion'". RTÉ News . Retrieved 17 May 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.