How Stakeknife became Britain’s top IRA spy | History | News

They known as him “Stakeknife”. Freddie Scappaticci, who died final yr aged 77, was a Belfast bricklayer who spent greater than a decade in the course of the Troubles working as a undercover agent deep contained in the IRA.

In March, the Police Service of Northern Eire launched its long-awaited report from Operation Kenova, a seven-year felony investigation into the actions of the British Military agent, codenamed Stakeknife.

Scappaticci was not named in it straight, however as they are saying in Northern Eire, the canine on the street may inform you that Stakeknife was Freddie Scappaticci. As a spy, he handed on useful intelligence to his British Military handlers and was described as a “priceless” asset.

He was additionally concerned in critical crimes, together with, it’s alleged, as many as 14 IRA murders. Was the Military proper to run Scappaticci as an agent for so long as they did?

The reply from Operation Kenova was damning and clear: “No”. There was not sufficient oversight of this agent and Scappaticci took extra lives than he saved. Errors have been actually made and Scappaticci’s handlers didn’t have sufficient authorized steerage.

However the Kenova report has raised virtually as many questions because it has answered.

One among these was precisely why so many intelligence professionals informed the Kenova detectives that Stakeknife was a useful agent and that his intelligence had allowed them to avoid wasting “numerous” lives. One other query was how Scappaticci even got here to be working for the Military within the first place.

There are all kinds of theories. Some have recommended he should have been blackmailed. One other hearsay is that he walked right into a police station and provided his companies as a spy, or that an opportunity encounter in a pub with a British soldier set him on this path.

The reality lies elsewhere. I’ve spent the final 5 years researching and writing a e-book about one of many murders that Stakeknife is alleged to have carried out. Alongside the best way, I’ve been in a position to piece collectively the main points of how this agent was taken on.

The story begins at some point in 1977, when a younger employees sergeant within the British Military went to a police station in central Belfast to see a pal.

The soldier’s title was Peter and he was on his fourth emergency tour of Northern Eire with the Devonshire and Dorset regiment, recognized within the military because the D’n’Ds. Peter’s buddies would inform you that he was not your typical soldier.

He at all times appeared to have a twinkle in his eye, he spoke in a heat West Nation burr and was somebody who may attraction the birds out of the bushes. He was additionally extra at residence in Northern Eire than most troopers. He had just lately married a neighborhood girl and was stated to be a ingesting buddy with native singer-songwriter George Ivan Morrison – higher recognized by his stage title Van Morrison.

The explanation Peter went to the police station that day was as a result of a Particular Department detective had requested if he’d like to fulfill certainly one of his informants.

This was virtually exceptional. The police didn’t, typically talking, wish to share their brokers with the Military. However this detective loved spending time with Peter and subsequently made an exception.

The informant he needed him to fulfill that day was a well-built, fast-talking former IRA man known as Freddie Scappaticci.

If Peter had assumed that Scappaticci was passing on particulars of what the native IRA brigade was as much as, he was flawed. “Scap”, as he was recognized, was solely supplying the police with names of builders who may be concerned in a VAT tax rip-off.

He wasn’t doing it out of some sense of civic propriety, however as a result of he had been caught collaborating in the identical tax fiddle himself. He was given a selection of going to jail or working for the police.

We’ll by no means know the exact particulars of what occurred subsequent – after Peter walked into the room and commenced to speak to Freddie Scappaticci – however we all know that the 2 males bought on. It will be flawed to say the plan was working, as a result of there was no plan.

However a friendship had begun, and shortly Peter started to surprise if at some point Scappaticci may conform to work for him as an agent.

Within the weeks that adopted, Peter discovered methods to stumble upon Scappaticci once more. On certainly one of these encounters, he recommended casually that they go for a drink. Scappaticci stated sure, and Peter went to fulfill him.

This was courageous. At about the identical time, Robert Nairac, a captain within the Grenadier Guards and a liaison officer hooked up to the SAS, went to a pub in South Armagh and spent the night time singing insurgent songs and talking in a faux Northern Irish accent.

He was in all probability hoping to recruit an agent, however we’ll by no means know, as later that night time he was kidnapped by the IRA, interrogated and killed.

“Nairac was the bravest man I ever met,” stated one of many IRA volunteers later convicted of his homicide. “He informed us nothing.”

Peter knew that going for a drink with Scappaticci so quickly after Nairac’s homicide was a danger. Scappaticci may have informed his former IRA comrades what was taking place. This may be a entice. However Peter took precautions.

He made certain to fulfill in a pub in impartial territory. He additionally had a plan for what to do if all of it went flawed. Within the dialog that adopted, the British soldier didn’t ask the previous IRA man to work for him as an agent. As an alternative, he saved the dialog gentle. They chatted about music, girls and soccer.

“The connection between agent and handler is a wedding,” Peter later informed a senior military officer, “however, a one-sided one.

“The handler should know all the things about his agent: his fears, his private issues, his issues about cash, how usually he has intercourse and with whom, his relationship along with his spouse and who he hates throughout the IRA.”

The final level was important. The important thing to understanding Freddie Scappaticci was that he had just lately been kicked out of the IRA and was livid about what had occurred. Peter recognised in Scappaticci a pathological want for revenge.

This was his manner in. What higher solution to get again on the IRA than rejoining it and dealing towards it from the within? Finally, he spelled this out to Scappaticci, who agreed to work for him. This recruitment had nothing to do with blackmail or an opportunity encounter in a pub. It was rooted in Scappaticci’s need for revenge and the friendship that had shaped between him and Peter.

Within the months after Scappaticci first agreed to work for the Military, he proved himself to be a productive agent, passing on “tactical” particulars of imminent IRA assaults in addition to “strategic” details about what was happening within the higher echelons of the organisation. Solely after that did Scappaticci conform to rejoin the IRA.

This was harmful, because the IRA had just lately arrange a brand new unit devoted to looking down spies known as the “Nutting Squad”. To “nut” somebody in Northern Eire is to shoot them within the head. Scappaticci couldn’t have recognized he can be allowed again into the IRA and later requested to hitch the identical Nutting Squad, ultimately rising to grow to be deputy commander of this terrifying unit.

A number of years later, in Might 1986, one other military agent from Derry, known as Frank Hegarty, was kidnapped by the IRA and questioned by three senior paramilitaries. One was Martin McGuinness, who would later grow to be deputy first minister of Northern Eire. The following day, Hegarty’s corpse was discovered by the facet of a street.

In response to Scappaticci, McGuinness personally gave the order for Frank Hegarty to be killed. However who pulled the set off? Often a job like this could be handed to the Nutting Squad. Was it doable that one military agent – Scappaticci – had killed one other? Greater than 10 years later, in 1999, a British soldier who had recognized Hegarty and remained upset by the information of his homicide got here to the conclusion that Scappaticci was accountable.

He went to the media and labored with a journalist on a narrative that exposed the existence of a military agent codenamed “Steakknife” (the spelling modified in later studies). As extra particulars emerged, so did the strain for some form of investigation, which led, in the end, to the launch of Operation Kenova in 2016.

One large query stays. Was the Kenova report that got here out earlier this month appropriate to say that Scappaticci took extra lives than his intelligence saved? The writer of this report, Jon Boutcher, now Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Eire, didn’t reveal precisely how he arrived at his conclusion. Maybe extra particulars will emerge later this yr.

However Boutcher’s estimate of what number of lives Scappaticci saved seems to have been a conservative one. He was solely taking a look at lives that have been saved as a direct results of a tip-off from Scappaticci. He didn’t contemplate the influence of the data he equipped that corroborated different studies, or was handed on to his handlers with no report being saved.

Nor did he keep in mind the lives that have been saved every time Scappaticci’s intelligence led to a bomb being defused or an IRA assault being known as off, in addition to the broader influence of his intelligence, which helped to deliver elements of this paramilitary organisation to a standstill within the years main as much as the Good Friday Settlement.

Boutcher was proper to conclude that there was not sufficient oversight, and that Scappaticci’s handlers turned a blind eye to what their agent was doing on too many events.

However the report that got here out earlier this month is barely the beginning of this story and extra is more likely to emerge within the months to return.

4 Photographs within the Night time, by Henry Hemming, (Quercus, £22) is out now. Go to expressbookshop.com or name Categorical Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on orders over £25