MI5 boss to be quizzed over 17 murders linked to IRA mole Stakeknife
THE head of MI5 will be questioned over whether a British Army double agent was responsible for numerous murders during the Troubles, it was claimed yesterday.
Sir Andrew Parker, director-general of the Security Service, will provide a statement on the activities of the spy, known as Stakeknife.
Police investigators are examining whether the IRA mole, whose real name is Freddie Scappaticci, 72, colluded in murder, kidnap and torture. They are examining 17 murders, many involving others accused of being informers for the authorities against the paramilitaries.
The move comes after officers discovered a cache of previously unchecked documents at Thames House, MI5’s London headquarters. It has been claimed they include information not disclosed to earlier investigations, including several held by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner.
The £35million inquiry, Operation Kenova, began two years ago after classified documents emerged that linked Stakeknife to several murders. It is being led by Bedfordshire Police chief constable Jon Boutcher.
‘Kenova has found documents that Stevens did not see which are very telling about the role that our man played in certain things,’ a source told The Sunday Times. ‘They are documents the service has kept that they probably should have got rid of.’ Scappaticci is living in hiding after being outed as potentially the most valuable British agent during the Northern Ireland conflict.
Incredibly, he spent years feeding information to MI5 and Army intelligence despite being the head of the IRA’s internal security department. It was known as the ‘nutting squad’, and its members hunted down suspected informers before torturing them, recording supposed confessions and murdering them.
Scappaticci, who denies being Stakeknife, is accused of being involved in a string of killings.
Earlier this month, he appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court amid conditions of unusual secrecy.
Scappaticci was given a threemonth jail sentence suspended for 12 months after admitting two charges of possessing extreme pornographic images relating to at least 329 images. The judge was told his life remains in extreme danger.