Stakeknife

Last updated

"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. [1] [2] Stakeknife allegedly worked as an FRU informant for 25 years. [2]

Contents

Stakeknife has been accused of being a double agent who was involved in the IRA's torture and murder of suspected informers while in the employ of the FRU. [3] [4] The British government launched Operation Kenova to investigate claims that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had failed to investigate up to 18 murders, to protect Stakeknife's identity from exposure.

In January 2018, Freddie Scappaticci was arrested amid accusations that he was Stakeknife, a claim widely acknowledged to be accurate. Scappaticci always publicly denied he was Stakeknife. [5] Scappaticci reportedly died in 2023 aged 77. In March 2024, the interim Kenova report was published, authored by Jon Boutcher. [3]

Activity

"Stakeknife" had his own dedicated handlers and agents, and it was suggested that he was important enough that MI5 set up an office dedicated solely to him. Rumours suggested that he was being paid at least £80,000 a year and had a bank account in Gibraltar. [6] It has been alleged that Stakeknife's intelligence handlers allowed up to 40 people to be killed by the IRA's Internal Security Unit, also known as the "Nutting Squad", to protect his cover. [7]

Stakeknife revealed

In 1987, Sam McCrory, an Ulster Defence Association/"Ulster Freedom Fighters" member, killed 66-year-old Francisco Notarantonio at his home in Ballymurphy in West Belfast. [8] The UDA/UFF had decided to murder the republican sympathiser who unknowingly had been targeted by the Force Research Unit (FRU) to divert attention away from Scappaticci. [9] It has been alleged that it was FRU agent Brian Nelson who gave Notarantonio's name to the UDA/UFF to protect the identity of Stakeknife. [9]

On 11 May 2003, Scappaticci was named as Stakeknife, the British spy who had operated at the very highest levels of the IRA for more than 20 years in Northern Ireland, by the Glasgow-based Sunday Herald, the Irish edition of the People, and by Irish papers the Sunday Tribune and Sunday World. [10]

Scappaticci, born in Belfast to Italian parents, denied the claims and launched an unsuccessful legal action to force the British government, to publicly state that he was not their agent. A report in a February 2007 edition of the Belfast News Letter reported that a cassette recording allegedly of Scappaticci talking about the number of murders he was involved in via the "Nutting Squad", as well as his work as an Army agent, had been lodged with the PSNI in 2004 and subsequently passed to the Stevens Inquiry in 2005. [11]

A former British Intelligence agent who worked in the FRU known as "Martin Ingram" has written a book titled Stakeknife since the original allegations came to light in which it says Scappaticci was the agent in question.

In October 2015, it was announced that Scappaticci was to be investigated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland over at least 24 murders. [12] In June 2016, it was announced that this investigation would be carried out by Bedfordshire Police and would examine the alleged activities of Stakeknife and possible crimes by IRA members and members of the British security services. [13] Scappaticci was arrested in connection with Operation Kenova in January 2018. [5]

On 29 October 2020, the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland decided that there was insufficient evidence to put him on trial on charges of perjury. [14] Stephen Herron, the PPS director in the area, also ruled out prosecutions of former members of the security services who are understood to have been his handlers as well as a former member of the PPS. [14] This meant that there was little chance of him appearing in a criminal trial during the final years of his life, despite a multimillion pound investigation into his role as a state agent inside the IRA. [14]

Scappaticci died in April 2023 without being charged. [15] The general officer, Sir John Wilsey who commanded the British army in Northern Ireland between 1983-1990, described agent Stakeknife as “the golden egg” of military intelligence’s agents during the Troubles. General Wilsey's opinion is that Stakeknife saved “hundreds and hundreds of lives”. [16] He was also suspected of tipping off British security chiefs about the IRA operation in Gibraltar in 1998, in which three IRA members were killed. [17]

On 5 March 2024, journalist Peter Taylor was permitted to publish a video of Scappaticci wearing a dressing gown outside his former home, in 2004. "In addition to spying for the British army, he was also the ISU's [IRA's, Internal Security Unit] chief interrogator, in which role he is believed to have been involved in 17 murders." BBC documentary, Our Dirty War: The British State and the IRA; had been prevented from publishing the video footage of the British agent, for twenty-years, until now, Scappaticci is seen threatening and saying "I'll do you" if the photographer continues to film. [18] [19] In March 2024, the interim Kenova report, said more lives were lost than saved through agent Stakeknife activities. [3]

Related Research Articles

The Stevens Inquiries were three official British government inquiries led by Sir John Stevens concerning collusion in Northern Ireland between loyalist paramilitaries and the state security forces. While Stevens declared in 1990 that collusion was "neither wide-spread nor institutionalised", by April 2003 he acknowledged that he had uncovered collusion at a level "way beyond" his 1990 view. Much of Stevens' evidence was obtained from advanced fingerprint techniques to link people to documents. By 2005 the team had identified 2,000 people from their prints with a further 1,015 sets of prints outstanding.

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.

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Finucane</span> Irish lawyer (1949–1989)

Patrick Finucane was an Irish lawyer who specialised in criminal defence work. Finucane came to prominence due to his successful challenge of the British government in several important human rights cases during the 1980s. He was killed by loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), acting in collusion with British security services. In 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Pat Finucane's family and apologised for the collusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Donaldson</span> Irish republican (1950–2006)

Denis Martin Donaldson was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a member of Sinn Féin who was killed following his exposure in December 2005 as an informer in the employ of MI5 and the Special Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It was initially believed that the Provisional IRA were responsible for his killing although the Real IRA claimed responsibility for his murder almost three years later. His friendship with French writer and journalist Sorj Chalandon inspired two novels: My Traitor and Return to Killybegs.

Stormontgate is the name given to the controversy surrounding an alleged Provisional Irish Republican Army spy ring and intelligence-gathering operation based in Stormont, the parliament building of Northern Ireland. The term was coined in October 2002 after the arrest of Sinn Féin's Northern Ireland Assembly group administrator Denis Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciarán Kearney, and former porter William Mackessy for intelligence-gathering on 4 October 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shankill Road bombing</span> 1993 IRA attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland

The Shankill Road bombing was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 23 October 1993 and is one of the most well-known incidents of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The IRA aimed to assassinate the leadership of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA), supposedly attending a meeting above Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill Road, Belfast. Two IRA members disguised as deliverymen entered the shop carrying a bomb, which detonated prematurely. Ten people were killed: one of the IRA bombers, a UDA member and eight Protestant civilians, two of whom were children. More than fifty people were wounded. The targeted office was empty at the time of the bombing, but the IRA had allegedly realised that the tightly packed area below would inevitably cause "collateral damage" of civilian casualties and continued regardless. However, the IRA have denied this saying that they intended to evacuate the civilians before the explosion. It is alleged, and unearthed MI5 documents appear to prove, that British intelligence failed to act on a tip off about the bombing.

Martin Ingram is the pseudonym of ex-British Army soldier Ian Hurst, who served in the Intelligence Corps and Force Research Unit (FRU). He has made a number of allegations about the conduct of the British Army, its operations in Northern Ireland via the FRU, and against figures in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Sinn Féin.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Banner</span> 1969–2007 British military operation in Northern Ireland during the Troubles

Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The British Army was initially deployed, at the request of the unionist government of Northern Ireland, in response to the August 1969 riots. Its role was to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and to assert the authority of the British government in Northern Ireland. This involved counter-insurgency and supporting the police in carrying out internal security duties such as guarding key points, mounting checkpoints and patrols, carrying out raids and searches, riot control and bomb disposal. More than 300,000 soldiers served in Operation Banner. At the peak of the operation in the 1970s, about 21,000 British troops were deployed, most of them from Great Britain. As part of the operation, a new locally-recruited regiment was also formed: the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

Peter Keeley, who uses the pseudonym Kevin Fulton, is a British agent from Newry, Northern Ireland, who allegedly spied on the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) for MI5. He is believed to be in London, where he is suing the Crown, claiming his military handlers cut off their connections and financial aid to him. In 2004, he reportedly sued the Andersonstown News, an Irish republican news outlet in Belfast, for revealing his identity as well as publishing his photograph. The result of that suit has not been made public.

Martin McGartland is a former British informer who infiltrated the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1989 to pass information to RUC Special Branch.

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">Brian Nelson (Northern Irish loyalist)</span> Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary member (1949 – 2003)

Brian Nelson was an Ulster loyalist paramilitary member during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was an intelligence chief of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and also a clandestine agent for the British Army's Force Research Unit during the conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Lyttle</span>

Tommy "Tucker" Lyttle, was a high-ranking Ulster loyalist during the period of religious-political conflict in Northern Ireland known as "the Troubles". A member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) – the largest loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland – he first held the rank of lieutenant colonel and later was made a brigadier. He served as the UDA's spokesman as well as the leader of the organisation's West Belfast Brigade from 1975 until his arrest and imprisonment in 1990. According to journalists Henry McDonald and Brian Rowan, and the Pat Finucane Centre, he became a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch informer.

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.

Catherine and Gerard Mahon were a husband and wife who lived in Twinbrook, Belfast. Gerard, aged twenty-eight, was a mechanic; Catherine, was twenty-seven. They were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 8 September 1985, the IRA alleging they were informers. However at least two of those responsible for their deaths were later uncovered as British agents within the IRA's Internal Security Unit, leaving the actual status of the Mahons as informers open to doubt.

John Joe McGee was an IRA volunteer who was formerly in the British Special Boat Service.

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.

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). 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. It is now led by Iain Livingstone, former Chief Constable of Police Scotland.

References

  1. ↑ "Focus: Scappaticci's past is secret no more". The Times . London. 18 May 2003. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2007.
  2. 1 2 Cowan, Rosie (12 May 2003). "He did the IRA's dirty work for 25 years - and was paid £80,000 a year by the government". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 11 February 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 "Operation Kenova Interim Report | Police Service of Northern Ireland".
  4. ↑ McDonald, Henry; Cobain, Ian (30 January 2018). "IRA informer 'Stakeknife' arrested in murder investigation". The Guardian.
  5. 1 2 Farmer, Ben (30 January 2018). "Army spy 'Stakeknife' who was head of IRA's internal security is arrested in investigation over murders". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  6. ↑ Cowan, Rosie (12 May 2003). "He did the IRA's dirty work for 25 years - and was paid £80,000 a year by the government". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  7. ↑ "Murder fear after naming of IRA spy". The Telegraph . London. 12 May 2003. Retrieved 11 February 2007.
  8. ↑ Wood, Ian S. Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. p.125
  9. 1 2 Mullin, John (25 September 2000). "Was an IRA informer so valuable that murder was committed to protect him?". The Guardian . Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  10. ↑ Byrne, Ciar (15 May 2003). "We were right to name Stakeknife, say reporters". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  11. ↑ "Stakeknife tape emerges after News Letter probe". Belfast Today. 5 February 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2007.[ permanent dead link ]
  12. ↑ "Stakeknife: Army's most high ranking agent within the IRA to be quizzed about 24 murders". BBC News. 21 October 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Stakeknife: Actions of IRA members, agents, Army and police to be examined". BBC News Online . 10 June 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 McDonald, Henry (29 October 2020). "Stakeknife scandal: Freddie Scappaticci avoids perjury charge". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  15. ↑ Carroll, Rory (11 April 2023). "Man suspected of being Stakeknife, Britain's top spy in IRA, dies". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  16. ↑ McDonald, Henry (2 October 2019). "British spy in IRA and 20 others could be charged with Troubles-era crimes". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  17. ↑ Byrne, Ciar (12 May 2003). "Stakeknife row escalates". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  18. ↑ "The sound that signalled death for IRA 'informers'". BBC News. 5 March 2024. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  19. ↑ Spotlight - Our Dirty War: The British State and the IRA , retrieved 5 March 2024

Further reading

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.