Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 allowed a double agent to commit murders during three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and then evade justice, a damning probe found.
The claim yesterday came in the final report of a nine-year investigation into the activities of “Stakeknife”, the codename for a member of the IRA paramilitary group who also worked for British security services.
The inquiry, called Operation Kenova, criticised MI5’s handling of Stakeknife, who headed the IRA internal security unit responsible for interrogating and torturing suspected British security forces informants during “The Troubles”.
“Checks and balances that should have been in place to manage the agent effectively were ignored through an apparent perverse sense of loyalty to Stakeknife and these blurred lines allowed him to continue to commit serious criminal offences for which he was never brought to justice,” the report said.
Stakeknife, who has never been formally identified but who is widely believed to have been Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, has been linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions.
The report found that his handlers had twice taken him out of Northern Ireland for a holiday when they knew he was wanted by police for conspiracy to murder and false imprisonment.
Scappaticci, who fled Northern Ireland in 2003 after the allegations first became public, died in 2023. He admitted being an IRA member but denied working for British agents.
The Kenova probe, set up in 2016 and which cost more than £40 million (€45.7 million), examined 101 murders and abductions linked to the unit headed by Stakeknife during the deadly unrest over British rule in Northern Ireland.
It discovered more than 3,500 intelligence reports from Stakeknife but found that “time and time again”, the reports were not acted on, apparently prioritising the protection of the agent over those who “could and should have been saved”.
The investigation’s interim report released last year concluded that the actions of the agent probably led to more lives being lost than saved.
The final findings also criticised MI5 for the late discovery and handing over of documents last year.
“The revelation of the MI5 material was the culmination of several incidents capable of being negatively construed as attempts by MI5 to restrict the investigation, run down the clock, avoid any prosecutions relating to Stakeknife and conceal the truth,” said report.
In a statement, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum offered his “sympathies to the victims and families of those who were tortured or killed” by the unit and repeated an apology for the late disclosure of documents.
The report also recommended that it was in the “public interest” to name Stakeknife and called on the UK Government to apologise to bereaved families and surviving victims.
Some 3,500 people were killed during The Troubles, which lasted from the late 1960s to a peace deal in 1998.
