More lives lost than saved by actions of Stakeknife
Report’s ‘damning indictment’ of UK operations during the Troubles
A MAJOR investigation into the British Army’s top IRA agent is a ‘damning indictment’ of the British state’s actions during the Troubles, a lawyer representing victims has said.
The interim findings of Operation Kenova found more lives were probably lost than saved by the actions of the agent known as Stakeknife.
The probe, which was undertaken by Bedfordshire Police and ran for seven years, costing around £40million (€47million), examined the role of the British army’s prized agent embedded in the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU) nicknamed ‘the nutting squad’.
Stakeknife is thought to be west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who died aged 77 last year.
Kevin Winters, who represents a number of victims’ families directly impacted by the report, said there now needed to be a public inquiry into the state level of penetration of the IRA.
‘Evidence of very serious criminality’
Mr Winters said Scappaticci was ‘not the only Stakeknife’.
He said the report was a ‘damning indictment on the state’.
He added: ‘We are left with the horrendous conclusion and takeaway message that both the state and the IRA were co-conspirators in the murder of some of its citizens.’
The report stops short of confirming Scappaticci as Stakeknife, noting the UK government’s Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND) policy prevents agents being identified.
However, it says that the Kenova team had passed ‘strong evidence of very serious criminality’ by Scappaticci to prosecutors in the North, prior to his death.
The report branded as ‘wild nonsense’ claims that Stakeknife met Margaret Thatcher and other cabinet ministers and had visited Chequers.
Among ten recommendations in the 208-page report, is a call for UK authorities to review the application of NCND, linking the ‘dogmatic’ policy with a failure to secure prosecutions in some Troubles cases.
It said a review was needed to ensure the ‘totemic status’ of the policy is not allowed to ‘obscure wrongdoing by the security forces or serious criminality by agents’.
The report also calls the UK and the republican leadership to apologise to bereaved families and victims of the ISU, the security forces for failings amid a ‘maverick’ culture for handling agents and intelligence; and the republican leadership for the IRA’s abduction, murder and torture of people it suspected of being agents, and linked campaigns of intimidation against their families.
The UK government said it could not comment in detail on the Kenova probe until the final report was published.
The investigation was originally headed by former Bedfordshire Police chief Jon Boutcher.
Mr Boutcher is not part of the Kenova team, having left last year to become PSNI boss, but he authored yesterday’s report and presented its findings.
‘Stakeknife’s identity has been disclosed to Kenova subject to obligations of confidentiality, which I remained bound by and I cannot make his name public without official authority,’ Mr Boutcher told a press conference in Belfast. ‘Thus far, the government has refused to give such authority and so Stakeknife is not named in this interim report.
‘However, this position in my view is no longer tenable. I expect the government to authorise Kenova to confirm Stakeknife’s identity in the final report.’
Last week the North’s Public Prosecution Service announced no prosecutions would follow consideration of the last batch of files from the investigation due to insufficient evidence to pursue cases.
Scappaticci died before any decision was made on the evidence files related to him.
Mr Boutcher said Stakeknife was involved in ‘very serious and wholly unjustifiable criminality, including murder’.
The PSNI chief estimated the number of lives saved as a result of intelligence provided by Stakeknife was in the high single figures or low double figures and ‘nowhere near’ the hundreds that have been claimed.
‘This is not a net estimate because it does not take account of the lives lost as a consequence of Stakeknife’s continued operation as an agent,’ he added.