Obituary: Freddie Scappaticci, IRA enforcer suspected to be Stakeknife, a double agent working for the British

 3h ago

Although he consistently denied it, Alfredo “Freddie” Scappaticci, who has died in his 77th year, was widely believed to be a high-level source for the British Army in the Provisional IRA — and went under the code-name “Stakeknife”. It is understood he died of natural causes, was buried in England last week and no inquest will be held. He reportedly settled in Manchester when he left Northern Ireland in 2003.

The person known as Stakeknife was head of the Internal Security Unit or “nutting squad”of the IRA which interrogated suspected informers at the time of the Northern Ireland troubles. It is alleged that the unit killed numerous individuals during the period when Stakeknife was in charge of it. But the information he supplied to the British army was considered to be of such high quality that senior officers referred to him as the “golden egg”.

It was alleged the former Royal Ulster Constabulary failed to launch investigations into as many as 18 murders in this context, because it wanted to protect the double agent. Northern Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Barra McGrory, referred the many allegations to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), successor of the RUC.

The DPP’s view was those who carried out these killings had not been properly investigated or brought to justice. “What we’re talking about here are almost parallel processes,” Mr McGrory said. “We have one in which there’s a police investigation, but all along there is an entirely secret dimension to these events. Now that drives a coach and horses through the rule of law.”​

Operation Kenova was set up to examine whether the RUC had failed to investigate those 18 murders in order to protect Stakeknife, who was providing information from inside the Provisionals to the British army’s force research unit. Former chief constable of Bedfordshire police, Jon Boutcher, was put in charge of Operation Kenova.

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In July 2020, Boutcher expressed concern at the legality of a British government plan, announced by Boris Johnson, then British prime minister, to close down all but a few of the investigations that were a legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

It was reported in July 2021 how detectives from Operation Kenova had found new DNA forensic evidence in relation to the case of Tom Oliver, a farmer in Co Louth who was abducted and shot dead in July 1991. It was claimed the 43-year-old father of seven was passing information on the activities of republicans to gardaí, although it was later alleged the killing was carried out to protect Stakeknife.

In April 2017, it was stated on a BBC Panorama programme that Stakeknife told the British army that Joseph Fenton, an estate agent from Belfast, was about to be executed by the IRA for allegedly providing secret information to the RUC special branch. The programme said, however, that Stakeknife’s handlers did nothing to prevent the killing, because it might jeopardise their greatly prized informer. Fenton was shot dead in February 1989 and the programme claimed he was one of the approximately 30 victims “executed” as British spies by the nutting squad while Stakeknife was active in it — and that many of these cases weren’t thoroughly investigated.

Panorama said British spy agencies were forced to make a choice between protecting the supply of intelligence from Stakeknife that was preserving many other lives, or investigating each death fully and risk outing him as their mole.

Following the recent news that Scappaticci had passed away, Kenova leader Boutcher said in a statement: “We are working through the implications of his death with regards to our ongoing casework. We remain committed to providing families with the truth of what happened to their loved ones and continue to actively pursue criminal charges against several individuals.”

Stating that an interim report on Kenova’s findings would be issued this year, he said, “People may now feel more able to talk to the Kenova team following the death of Scappaticci, who had long [been] accused by many of being involved in the kidnap, murder and torture of potential PIRA informants during the Troubles. I appeal to anyone with information that might help those impacted by the events we are investigating to contact us in confidence to help families understand what happened during these difficult times.”

Kevin Winters, a lawyer representing relatives of people killed by the Provisional IRA, said the news “will frustrate many families” who have been awaiting the publication of Mr Boutcher’s independent report for more than six years.

He said: “Families of victims will rightly ask questions. Their cynicism is heightened upon learning that news of Scappaticci’s burial seems to have been kept quiet by the authorities over the Easter weekend.”

Journalist Greg Harkin had a key role in breaking the Stakeknife story in 2003. He doorstepped Scappaticci at his home in west Belfast, with evidence about the Belfastman’s double-life in the IRA as a British agent.

Scappaticci denied the allegations at a press conference shortly afterwards but later moved to Manchester.​

The significance of Stakeknife’s role has however been questioned by former Sinn Féin publicity director Danny Morrison in light of the actions the IRA took when the British were supposed to be receiving high-level information from their prized intelligence agent. Examples cited by Morrison on his blog include “the IRA killing of Lord Mountbatten, 18 soldiers at Narrow Water, the great escape from the H-Blocks in 1983, the Brighton bombing, given everything major the IRA did, including landing massive arms shipments from Libya (and presumably elsewhere)”. Morrison wrote in The Guardian that allegations about Stakeknife’s activities had been used “by British intelligence in an attempt to sow confusion and fuel republican dissent”.

Scappaticci’s father Daniel, a native of the Italian town of Cassino, died in April 2017 at the age of 98; his requiem mass took place in St Agnes’s Church in Andersonstown, Belfast. The coffin was draped in the Italian flag. An ice-cream van led the cortege.

In December 2018, Scappaticci avoided prison after he appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London to admit two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images. He was given a suspended prison sentence after a magistrate cited his “good character”.

The charges spanned from October 2015 to January 2018 and, the court heard, related to at least 329 images.

Sentencing him to three months in custody, suspended for 12 months, Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot said: “You have not been before the court for 50 years — and that’s good character in my book.”

He told police officers that he viewed extreme pornography when he felt low. He was ordered to pay a £100 (€115) victim surcharge and £85 costs.

The material was on a laptop seized from his coffee-table during an Operation Kenova search.

Scappaticci’s wife Sheila (née Cunningham), from the Market area of south Belfast, died after a long illness in October 2019. She stayed in Belfast after her husband fled the city in 2003 when it was alleged he was the double agent Stakeknife.