A MAN widely named as the British Army’s notorious IRA agent “Stakeknife” has been arrested by detectives investigating historic murders connected with the Troubles, it has been revealed.
A team of independent detectives probing claims of murder, kidnap and torture detained a 72-year-old at an undisclosed location yesterday, a statement from Operation Kenova said.
Bedfordshire Police Chief Constable Jon Boutcher is investigating crimes allegedly committed by the high-ranking Army mole, who reputedly led the republican organisation’s “nutting squad”, an internal security unit which brutally interrogated and murdered suspected spies in the conflict.
Analysis: Stakeknife affair is as corrosive as Iraq WMD tale
Dozens of detectives are probing more than 50 murders. In 2003 Stakeknife was widely named as west Belfast man Anthony Scappaticci, but he has always strongly denied the allegation.
A statement from the police investigation said: “Officers from Operation Kenova have arrested a 72-year-old man in connection with the investigation into allegations of murder, kidnap and torture.”
Mr Scappaticci is alleged to have been the most high-ranking British agent within the Provisional IRA, who was given the codename Stakeknife.
He was the grandson of an Italian immigrant who came to Northern Ireland in search of work. He left the province when identified by the media as Stakeknife in 2003 Mr Scappaticci has admitted, in the past, to being a republican but denies that he was an IRA informer.
The informant’s identity is believed to have been known to a handful of Irish journalists for several years. However, the first person to publicly name Scappaticci as Stakeknife was a disaffected former army agent, known by the pseudonym Kevin Fulton.
Analysis: Stakeknife affair is as corrosive as Iraq WMD tale
The former British soldier from south Armagh, who infiltrated the IRA for the intelligence services, had reportedly fallen on hard times and threatened to unmask Stakeknife if the MoD didn’t give him an Army pension and resettlement package.
After Mr Scappaticci was named – with the Sunday Herald breaking the news on the mainland UK after Irish papers published the claim – the former builder appeared briefly at a press conference at his solicitor’s offices to deny the allegations and then vanished, most likely into a witness protection scheme in Britain.
He is said to have appeared briefly at his 98-year-old father’s funeral in west Belfast last year. People who said they saw him described him as looking fit and relaxed.
The independent team of detectives began investigating after the former director of public prosecutions in Northern Ireland, Barra McGrory QC, referred multiple allegations to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The PSNI decided to call in external help from officers outside Northern Ireland.
The investigation update added: “Operation Kenova is a complex and wide-ranging investigation launched in June 2016 to investigate allegations of murder, kidnap and torture dating back to the 1970s.
Analysis: Stakeknife affair is as corrosive as Iraq WMD tale
So far the team has engaged with more than 40 families and processed more than 500,000 pages of information and 1,500 lines of inquiry pursued.”
Almost 50 detectives have been working on claims of murders, attempted murders and unlawful imprisonment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here