British Army’s top IRA spy Stakeknife ‘cost more lives than he saved’

The actions of Stakeknife, the British Army’s top spy within the IRA, probably cost more lives than he saved, a damning report has found.

The notorious double agent, who had been linked to 50 murders, ignored handlers, acted outside orders and his actions should have rung alarm bells among senior army figures who treated him as the “crown jewel” of British intelligence.

The spy, who was believed to be Freddie Scappaticci, a former bricklayer, worked secretly for the British Army while he was part of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), which tortured and killed suspected informants.

The ISU later became known as the “Nutting Squad”, a nickname derived from the method of killing suspected informants with a shot to the back of the head. Stakeknife kidnapped, tortured and killed victims while passing on intelligence to the IRA.

An interim report of Operation Kenova, the seven-year, £40 million investigation into Stakeknife’s links to kidnap, torture and murder, said that during the Troubles “preventable and serious crimes took place and went unsolved and unpunished as a result of steps taken by the security forces to protect and maintain their agents”.

The operation investigated 101 murders and abductions relating to the “Nutting Squad”. It finally linked Stakeknife to 14 murders and 15 abduction incidents.

The report said the ISU was “responsible for torture, inhumane and degrading treatment and murder, including of children, vulnerable adults, those with learning difficulties and those who were entirely innocent of the claims made against them”.

It added that “a core part of the activities of the ISU included physical beatings with iron bars and hammers and the shooting of victims in their legs, elbows, knees or feet, sometimes simply because they were accused or suspected of being involved in crime or anti-social behaviour”.

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, the report’s author who works for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said that claims Stakeknife saved “countless or hundreds” of lives were false and based on “unreliable and speculative” internal assessments.

He said these conclusions had become “widely accepted within the security forces and they have led many on the inside to view the case through rose-tinted spectacles and to feel defensive about Stakeknife’s reputation”.

“In reality the claims are inherently implausible and should ring alarm bells: any serious security and intelligence professional hearing an agent being likened to ‘the goose that laid the golden eggs’, as Stakeknife was, should be on the alert because the comparison is rooted in fables and false tales.”

The report dismissed conspiracy theories relating to Stakeknife. It said that myths about the spy ranged from claims security forces directed loyalist paramilitaries away from Stakeknife to protect him to “wild nonsense” about the agent meeting Margaret Thatcher and other government ministers and visiting Chequers.

Chief Constable Boutcher also addressed theories that Scappaticci was not really dead or took his own life.

“Mr Scappaticci died in March 2023 aged 77,” he said. “Since this was made public, it has been suggested to me that Mr Scappaticci is still in fact alive, whilst others have claimed that he took his own life. Speculation and rumours of this kind are unhelpful for all concerned. I have independently verified when, where and how Mr Scappaticci died and can confirm that he died of natural causes following an illness.”

Stakeknife worked for the British Army’s Force Research Unit, which spied on terror groups during the Troubles, but he said the agent often went against orders and his continued involvement cost lives.

Chief Constable Boutcher said that the number of lives saved through intelligence obtained by Stakeknife was “between high single figures and low double figures and nowhere near hundreds sometimes claimed”, but this “does not take account of the lives lost as a consequence of Stakeknife’s continued operation as an agent”.

The report noted: “From what I have seen, I think it is probable that this resulted in more lives being lost than saved. Furthermore, there were undoubtedly occasions when Stakeknife ignored his handlers, acted outside his tasking and did things he should not have done when very serious risks were run.”

He later added: “I have already touched on the widespread belief among some in the security force that Stakeknife saved ‘countless’ or ‘hundreds’ of lives. He did not. That claim emanates from the FRU, which made a similar and equally exaggerated claim about Brian Nelson [another agent].”

He said that while the FRU kept “success books” for some of its agents “remarkably given his ‘crown jewel’ status”, one for Stakeknife has never been recovered.

Scappaticci, who enjoyed the protection of the British state for 20 years, died in April 2023 while living in England.

The report stopped short of naming him as Stakeknife but said prior to his death last year, the PSNI was considering “a number of files which I believe contained strong evidence of very serious criminality on the part of Mr Scappaticci”.

Chief Constable Boutcher said the identity of Stakeknife would have to be officially confirmed at a later point but “for now it suffices to say that Mr Scappaticci was and is still inextricably bound up and a critical person of interest at the heart of Operation Kenova”.

“It will never be known whether he would have been prosecuted and, if so, pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial, but it is my view that he could and should have been. I believe that we have found strong evidence of very serious criminality on the part of Mr Scappaticci and his prosecution would have been in the interests of victims, families and justice.”

The investigation has pursued 12,000 lines of enquiry, taken more than 2,000 statements and interviewed more than 300 people, with 40 interviewed under caution. More than 35 files have been referred to the police.

Addressing the actions of security forces more generally, Chief Constable Boutcher said that agents committed murders “including cases in which one agent murdered another” and acted against orders or where it was “arguable they were acting on behalf of the state”.

He said that there were cases where “murder was carried out as a punishment” against suspected agents, who were innocent.

Murders could have been prevented but security services decided not to take action because this might have “exposed or compromised an agent”, the report said.

He added that on some occasions “handlers were aware that their agents were involved in very serious offences” and there was a “curious lack of professional curiosity from the very senior leadership of the Army in relation to the recruitment and running” of agents.

“Our Kenova investigations have established the agents were regularly involved in inciting and committing serious criminal acts”.

He said the UK Government should apologise to bereaved and surviving families where individuals were attacked or murdered because they were suspected of being an agent or where perpetrators were not brought to justice.

The report also took aim at the republican leadership for failing to apologise for its actions which “were the most shameful and evil I have ever encountered”.

“The republican leadership should issue a full apology for the the Provisional IRA’s abduction, torture and murder of those it accused or suspected of being state agents during the Troubles and acknowledge the loss and unacceptable intimidation their families have suffered.”

The report suggested MI5 had obstructed its investigation, noting that, despite the support of the spy agency’s director general, Chief Constable Boutcher had “significant concerns about access to information it holds” relating to the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Force Research Unit.

Chief Constable Boutcher said he had several meetings with MI5 about access to information, but documents were marked as Top Secret instead of Secret and solicitors representing former agents were given “greater and unorthodox access to MI5 materials and my concern that its strategy was one of delay”.

The report said that “Kenova’s relationship with MI5 has endured some extremely fractious spells and the process of extracting information from it has sometimes felt like a hard-fought uphill battle”.

“Given that MI5 had very little involvement in running security force agents in Northern Ireland during the course of the Troubles and Stakeknife himself was run by the FRU, this may appear surprising and certainly troubled me.”

Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service said last week no prosecutions are to be pursued following consideration of the final files from the investigation into Stakeknife. The final cases involved five retired soldiers and seven alleged IRA members.

Responding to the report, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said the Government could not comment on the detail of the report until the final version was published.

He paid tribute to the work of Kenova, saying it had gained the trust of many victims’ families seeking answers about what happened to their loved ones.

“As this is an ‘interim’ report, I will not comment at this time on behalf of the Government on the detail of the report. It contains several specific, very serious allegations that remain subject to consideration by the courts,” the minister said.

“It would not be right for the Government to make any comment on the substance of the interim report until the conclusion of litigation related to it.

“I note the recent decisions made by the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland in relation to files passed to them by Operation Kenova, which once again go to show how difficult it is to achieve criminal justice outcomes in legacy cases.

“Due to numerous related civil cases, however, that remain ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.

“There is also the prospect of appeals against any of the recent decisions made by the Director for Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland.”

Mr Heaton-Harris added: “I would like to put on record again my deepest sympathy with all the families who lost loved ones during the Troubles – including as a result of the actions of the Provisional IRA.”

Ten recommendations also included a call to review of the use of the Neither Confirm Nor Deny policy that currently prevents the identification of agents and whether it is being used appropriately.

It said the “dogmatic” policy was linked to a failure to secure prosecutions in some Troubles cases and a review was needed to ensure the policy was not allowed to “obscure wrongdoing by the security forces or serious criminality by agents”.

The report recommended the longest day, 21st June, should be designated as a day to remember those lost, injured or harmed as a result of the Troubles.