Freddie Scappaticci | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 January 1946 |
| Died | 20 March 2023 (aged 77)[1] |
| Organization | Provisional Irish Republican Army |
| Children | 6 |
Freddie Scappaticci,[2] later known asFrank Cowley[1] (12 January 1946[3] – 20 March 2023) was an IrishProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member named in theKenova report as a British Intelligence mole with the codenameStakeknife.[4]
Scappaticci was a member of the IRA’sInternal Security Unit. In 2003, it was reported that Scappaticci had been working for British intelligence, their highest-ranking agent in the IRA, and was known by the codename "Stakeknife". Both the IRA and Scappaticci himself publicly denied involvement withBritish intelligence.
Scappaticci was born on 12 January 1946 to Mary Murray and Danny Scappaticci and grew up in theMarkets area ofBelfast. His father had been an Italian immigrant to the city in the 1920s.[2] TheIrish Times[3] reported that his birth name was Frederico, but he has said that "Freddie" was the name on his birth certificate.[2][5] He took up work as abricklayer.[6]
Scappaticci was fined for riotous assembly in 1970 after being caught up inthe Troubles and, a year later, wasinterned without trial inLong Kesh at the age of 25 as part ofOperation Demetrius.[6] Among those interned with him were figures later to become prominent in the republican movement, such asIvor Bell,Gerry Adams, andAlex Maskey. He was a low-level member of the IRA in the 1970s.[6] On his release, he found work on a building site, where he was later questioned by the police over a tax scam he was accused of participating in.[7]
Scappaticci was married, and had six children.[5]
By 1980, Scappaticci was a lead member in theInternal Security Unit (ISU) for theIRA Northern Command.[8] The ISU was a unit tasked withcounter-intelligence and the investigation of leaks within the IRA and the exposure ofmoles orinformers, known as "touts". Via the ISU, Scappaticci played a key role in investigating suspected informers, conducting inquiries into operations suspected of being compromised, debriefing IRA volunteers released fromRoyal Ulster Constabulary andBritish Army questioning, and vetting potential IRA recruits.
The ISU has also been referred to as the "Nutting Squad", in reference to the fact that many of the informers uncovered were shot in the back of the head (the "nut").[9] 18 killings as a result of ISU activities have been directly attributed to Scappaticci,[10] including the murders of two senior policemen[11] and a suspected informer named Joe Fenton.[9]
After the original allegations broke in 2003, Scappaticci, by now living in the Riverdale area of WestBelfast, claimed that his involvement with the IRA had ended in 1990 due to his wife's illness. He denied that he had ever been linked to any facet of theBritish intelligence services, including theForce Research Unit.[12] He then leftNorthern Ireland and began living underwitness protection.[5] He is known to have lived inCheshire andManchester, where his brother had settled, and later moved to a gated community inLondon, where he appeared before and was discharged by Westminster Court for alleged sex offences. He briefly returned to Belfast in 2017 to attend his 99-year-old father's funeral.[13][7] His wife had remained in Belfast, and he lived apart from her from 2004 onwards, though they occasionally holidayed together and were said to have kept in contact until her death in 2019.[13][14] Around this time, he was said to be living in a detached house inGuildford and driving aMercedes.[citation needed]
Scappaticci's first involvement with British intelligence is alleged to have been in 1978, two years before theForce Research Unit (FRU) was formed in 1980. The role of the unit was to centralise Army Intelligence under theIntelligence Corps. He was said to have worked as an agent for theRoyal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch; he had previously been interviewed by the RUC’s fraud squad in connection with a construction industry tax scam. Fearful of returning to prison, he offered to become a low-level informer.[7][15]
The formerFRU agent turnedwhistleblower using the pseudonym "Martin Ingram" said in his 2004 bookStakeknife that Scappaticci eventually developed into valuableAgent 6126,[7] handled by British Army Intelligence via the FRU. Ingram says that Scappaticci's activities as a high-grade intelligence source came to his attention in 1982, after Scappaticci was detained for a drunk driving offence.[16][17] Ingram paints Scappaticci at this time as "the crown jewels", the best agent handled by the FRU, and the asset was said to have been paid £80,000 a year.[17] He cites a number of allegations against Scappaticci. His accusations centre on various individuals who died as a result of the activities of the ISU between 1980 and 1990. Ingram also alleges that Scappaticci disclosed information to British intelligence on IRA operations during the time period, involving:
Aside from providing intelligence to the FRU, Scappaticci is alleged to have worked closely with his FRU handlers throughout the 1980s and 1990s to protect and promote his position within the IRA. The controversy that has arisen centres on Ingram's allegation that the FRU killed individuals who might have exposed Scappaticci as an informer.[21]
"Stakeknife" was thecode name of a high-levelspy, now widely identified as Scappaticci, who successfully infiltrated the IRA while working for the FRU, aBritish military intelligence unit.[22][23] Stakeknife allegedly worked as an FRU informant for 25 years.[23]
Stakeknife has been accused of being adouble agent who was involved in the IRA's torture and murder of suspected informers while in the employ of the FRU.[24][25] The UK government launchedOperation Kenova to investigate claims that theRoyal Ulster Constabulary had failed to investigate up to 18 murders, to protect Stakeknife's identity from exposure.
In January 2018, Scappaticci was arrested amid accusations that he was Stakeknife, a claim widely acknowledged to be accurate. Scappaticci always publicly denied he was Stakeknife.[26]
"Stakeknife" had his own dedicated handlers and agents, and it was suggested that he was important enough thatMI5 set up an office dedicated solely to him. Rumours suggested that he was being paid at least £80,000 a year and had a bank account inGibraltar.[6] It has been alleged that Stakeknife's intelligence handlers allowed up to 40 people to be killed by the IRA'sInternal Security Unit to protect his cover.[27]
In 1987,Sam McCrory, anUlster Defence Association/"Ulster Freedom Fighters" member, killed 66-year-oldFrancisco Notarantonio at his home inBallymurphy in West Belfast.[28] The UDA/UFF had decided to murder the republican sympathiser who unknowingly had been targeted by theForce Research Unit (FRU) to divert attention away from Scappaticci.[29] It has been alleged that it was FRU agentBrian Nelson who gave Notarantonio's name to the UDA/UFF to protect the identity of Stakeknife.[29]
On 11 May 2003, Scappaticci was named as Stakeknife, the British spy who had operated at the very highest levels of the IRA for more than 20 years in Northern Ireland, by the Glasgow-basedSunday Herald, the Irish edition of thePeople, and by the Irish newspapersSunday Tribune, andSunday World.[30]
Scappaticci, born in Belfast to Italian parents, denied the claims, and launched an unsuccessful legal action to force the UK government to publicly state that he was not their agent. A report in a February 2007 edition of theBelfast News Letter reported that a cassette recording, allegedly of Scappaticci talking about the number of murders he was involved in via the "Nutting Squad", as well as his work as an Army agent, had been lodged with thePSNI in 2004 and subsequently passed to theStevens Inquiry in 2005.[31]
A former Intelligence agent who worked in theFRU, known as "Martin Ingram", has written a book titledStakeknife since the original allegations came to light, stating that Scappaticci was the agent in question.
In 1993 Scappaticci approached theITV programmeThe Cook Report and agreed to an interview on his activities in the IRA and the alleged role ofMartin McGuinness in the organisation. The first interview took place on 26 August 1993 in the car park of the Culloden Hotel inCultra,County Down. This interview was, unknown to Scappaticci, recorded and eventually found its way into an edition of the programme. The interview was posted online as the 2003 allegations against Scappaticci surfaced.[32]
Scappaticci appeared to give intimate details of themodus operandi of theIRA's Northern Command, indicated some of his previous involvement in the organisation and alleged, among other things, that Martin McGuinness was involved in the death of Frank Hegarty – an IRA volunteer who had been killed as an informer by the IRA in 1986. It has since been alleged that Scappaticci knew the intimate details of Hegarty's killing because, as part of his duties in the ISU, he had reportedly been involved in the interrogation and execution of Hegarty regarding a largeLibyan arms cache, which the Gardaí found.Martin Ingram stated that Hegarty was an FRU agent whom other FRU members had encouraged to rise through the organisation and gain the confidence of key IRA members.[33]
Things deteriorated for Scappaticci whenJohn Stevens, the Metropolitan police commissioner, who was investigating collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the killing of Protestant studentBrian Adam Lambert in 1987 and the killing of solicitorPat Finucane in 1989, revealed that he knew of his existence. In April 2004, Stevens signaled that he intended to question Scappaticci as part of thethird Stevens inquiry.[34]
A report in a February 2007 edition of theBelfast News Letter reported that acassette recording allegedly of Scappaticci talking about the number of murders he was involved in via the "Nutting Squad", as well as his work as an Army agent, had been lodged with thePSNI in 2004 and subsequently passed to the Stevens Inquiry in 2005.[35] It is unclear whether this audio is a recording made via theCook Report investigation. There were several inconsistencies with the various media reports alleging that Scappaticci wasStakeknife. The IRA reportedly assured Scappaticci of their belief in his denials and has issued public statements suggesting that the announcement of the former as a "tout" was a stunt by the UK government to undermineSinn Féin and republican movement in Northern Ireland.[36]
In October 2015, it was announced that Scappaticci was to be investigated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland over at least 24 murders.[37] In June 2016, it was announced that this investigation would be carried out byBedfordshire Police and would examine the alleged activities of Stakeknife and possible crimes by IRA members and members of the British security services.[38] Scappaticci was arrested in connection withOperation Kenova in January 2018.[26]
In January 2018, Scappaticci was arrested by police regarding offences including murder and abduction, but was released on bail. On 5 December 2018, theWestminsterMagistrates' Court sentenced Scappaticci to three months' imprisonment, suspended for one year, after he pleaded guilty to possessing "extremepornographic images", including those whichfeatured animals. The pornographic materials were uncovered during an investigation into serious crimes committed during the Troubles.[39]
On 29 October 2020, thePublic Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland decided that there was insufficient evidence to put him on trial on charges of perjury.[40] Stephen Herron, the PPS director in the area, also ruled out prosecutions of former members of the security services who are understood to have been his handlers as well as a former member of the PPS.[40] This meant that there was little chance of him appearing in a criminal trial during the final years of his life, despite a multimillion pound investigation into his role as a state agent inside the IRA.[40]
The general officer,Sir John Wilsey who commanded the British army in Northern Ireland between 1983-1990, described agent Stakeknife as “the golden egg” of military intelligence’s agents during the Troubles. General Wilsey's opinion is that Stakeknife saved “hundreds and hundreds of lives”.[41] He was also suspected of tipping off British security chiefs about the IRA operation in Gibraltar in 1988,in which three IRA members were killed.[42]On 5 March 2024, journalistPeter Taylor was permitted to publish a video of Scappaticci wearing a dressing gown outside his former home, in 2004."In addition to spying for the British army, he was also the ISU's [IRA's, Internal Security Unit] chief interrogator, in which role he is believed to have been involved in 17 murders."BBC documentary,Our Dirty War: The British State and the IRA; had been prevented from publishing the video footage of the British agent, for 20 years, until now, Scappaticci is seen threatening and saying "I'll do you," if the photographer continues to film.[43][44] In March 2024, the interimKenova report, said more lives were lost than saved through agent Stakeknife's activities.[24]
"To be clear, this hundreds of lives claim emanated from theFRU itself. A similar claim was made about the loyalist agent,Brian Nelson. Both were false and wildly exaggerated. A major police investigation would later conclude that the probability was that more lives were lost than saved as a result of the agent's Stakeknife.”[45]
Scappaticci died on 20 March 2023 without being charged.[1][46]The Guardian reported that his health had deteriorated due to a series ofstrokes.[13] Because he was still living underwitness protection, little information about his death was publicly revealed, and it was only announced after his burial had taken place.[5][10][47] It was later revealed that he had been known as 'Frank Cowley'.[1]
In August 2024,Iain Livingstone, former head of Operation Kenova, announced thatMI5 had not disclosed all material it had on Stakeknife before Operation Kenova published a report earlier in 2024.[48] He said that he andJon Boutcher, the former head of Kenova, had previously stated that they believed that they had been given access to all files that MI5 had in relation to Stakeknife.[48] He wrote a letter expressing his concerns toSecretary of State for Northern IrelandHilary Benn, former head of Operation Kenova Jon Boucher, theDirector of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland and the head of MI5.[48] There are several hundreds of pages of undisclosed file and the search is ongoing.[48] Some may identify new leads and cast doubt on evidence obtained by Operation Kenova.[48] Based on an initial assessment he claimed that the files related to Stakeknife and not to other Kenova investigations, including Denton.[48]
Sinn FéinMPJohn Finucane said it was "disgraceful and unsurprising" that British security services had withheld information from the inquiry.[48] He also said that "As the British government's shameful Legacy Act was enacted to close down families’ access to the civil and criminal courts, British intelligence services have delayed the release of information to families who have waited for the truth for decades," and "The discovery that MI5 did not disclose vital information to the Kenova Inquiry may now further delay the publication of the full report into the investigation. This revelation will add to the trauma and the anguish of families of the victims, and I am calling on the investigation to process the new information as thoroughly and as quickly as possible".[48]
Baroness O'Loan, a member of Kenova's steering committee said MI5 had behaved "appallingly".[49] She also said that the new material may alter what families had been told previously.[49] She added that "MI5 should never have put the families in this position" and "This could be retraumatising... I think it is absolutely disgraceful."[49]
Originally the final Kenova report was to have been published before Christmas 2024 but it has been delayed to 2025 to assess the newly-disclosed material.[49]
I don't know where Alfredo comes from. I have always been Freddie. It's on my birth certificate
They [the victim's families] argued that, if STAKEKNIFE was indeed a British government informant, and if he was personally involved in the murder of alleged IRA informants, then the British authorities technically allowed him to get away with murder in order to protect his secret identity. The government, therefore, technically colluded in the murders and should be held responsible.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
