MI5 head to be quizzed over Stakeknife deaths
The head of the MI5, Britain’s domestic security service, is to answer police questions about the activities of Stakeknife, one of the British Army’s most precious moles in the IRA during the Troubles, who is under investigation for 17 murders.
Sir Andrew Parker, director-general of the Security Service, will be asked to make a statement detailing his agency’s knowledge of Stakeknife’s alleged crimes after detectives uncovered a cache of secret documents at Thames House, MI5’s London headquarters.
Police officers working on a £35m (NZ$64m) inquiry into alleged collusion between British intelligence officers and the IRA double agent over three decades have set up a permanent unit in MI5 after the discovery of the previously undisclosed material, some of which is understood to be held on antiquated microfiche.
Detectives from Operation Kenova, led by Jon Boutcher, the chief constable of Bedfordshire police, arrested Freddie Scappaticci, 72, known by the codename Stakeknife, in January on suspicion of murder, kidnap and torture.
Scappaticci, who fed information to MI5 and British army intelligence while operating as head of the IRA’s feared internal security department - known as the "nutting squad" - has been in hiding and under protection for more than a decade. He is alleged to have been involved in the killing of Caroline Moreland in Belfast in 1994, the murder of Joe Fenton in
1989 and the kidnapping of Alexander "Sandy" Lynch in
1990.
Scappaticci denies being Stakeknife and rejects any suggestion that he was involved in any murder, kidnap or torture.
Kenova, which includes 50 detectives and civilian staff, is investigating whether British intelligence handlers allowed suspected informants to be sacrificed so Stakeknife, a prized agent, could maintain his cover. Tensions are understood to be mounting between MI5 and the police. "Boutcher has upset quite a few people at the service," said a source. "He is not in a cosy relationship with them. The victims’ families are his No 1 priority."
The dispute is understood to centre on the discovery of MI5 documents not previously disclosed to earlier police inquiries into collusion and Stakeknife’s activities, including three led by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner.
"Kenova has found documents that Stevens did not see which are very telling about the role that our man played in certain things," said a source. "They are documents that the service has kept that they probably should have got rid of."
The Sunday Times understands police officers were puzzled not to find the same papers at the Ministry of Defence because Stakeknife was recruited and "run" by the Force Research Unit (FRU), a shadowy arm of the British Army’s intelligence corps, which handled undercover agents in Northern Ireland. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, however, Scappaticci’s intelligence on the IRA was so valuable that the FRU shared it with other agencies, including MI5, which appears to have kept records.
‘‘All the relevant agencies are being questioned about who authorised [the documents’] destruction,’’ said the source. – The Times