More lives were lost than saved because of the activities of a man alleged to have been the highest-ranking British intelligence agent in the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles, according to a seven-year investigation into his activities.
The Kenova report published on Friday finds that the agent Stakeknife saved “between high single figures and low double figures” of lives but “nowhere near hundreds [as] sometimes claimed”.
The report recommends that the UK government and the republican leadership acknowledge and apologise for their failures over the spy’s actions.
Freddie Scappaticci, a west Belfast man who died in April last year, denied being the agent codenamed Stakeknife. He is not named as the agent in this report.
He was linked to more than a dozen murders during his time as a senior member of the Provisional IRA’s ruthless internal security unit known as “the nutting squad”, which was tasked with identifying and killing security force informers. Its victims were often found shot in the head with their bodies dumped along the border after suffering torture.
Many families of victims believe the security forces allowed their loved ones to die to protect Stakeknife’s identity. They say that the IRA man charged with rooting out British informers was himself an informer, with one former senior intelligence officer once describing him as “the golden egg”.
Operation Kenova, which has cost more than £38m, was established in 2016 to investigate his alleged activities, and those of former British army and RUC intelligence handlers.
Its 208-page report by the former chief constable of Bedfordshire Jon Boutcher has resulted in no prosecution. Boutcher has since become chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
During the press conference at the report’s publication, Boutcher paid tribute to the dignity of the families of victims. He said the Kenova team, now led by Sir Iain Livingstone, a retired chief constable of Police Scotland, could now proceed to its final report.
He condemned the IRA’s actions aimed at subjugating its own community and added that the security forces were often presented with dilemmas for which there was no right answer, but that there was a lack of proper oversight. He said that was “a serious failure” and murders that should have been prevented “were allowed to take place”.
In the report, Boutcher says he and his investigation were “troubled” by some “extremely fractious spells” in extracting information from the Security Service, MI5.
He concludes that “not sharing intelligence with investigators or sharing it in a limited fashion” is “not compatible with the requirements of an ECHR-compliant investigation and must stop”.
He says the public does not expect institutions to be infallible but the security forces seem to have been motivated by the view that they need to be protected from criticism so as not to damage public confidence in them.
He is also critical of “the continuing failure of governments, public authorities, political parties and those who fought in the Troubles to acknowledge the hurt inflicted on the families of those who were murdered, or to provide them with a meaningful examination of the circumstances of their death”.
He describes the IRA’s actions as “the most shameful evil I have encountered”.
Boutcher suggests that 21 June, the longest day of the year, should be “designated as a day when we remember those lost, injured or harmed as a result of the Troubles”.
Kevin Winters, the solicitor for 12 of the families of Stakeknife’s victims described the report as “a damning indictment of the state.” and aded that the state could have intervened to save lives.
“That this didn’t happen is legally and morally reprehensible”, he added, “We are left with the horrendous conclusion that both state and the IRA were co-conspirators in the murder of citizens.”
He said the decision not to name Scaapticci as Stakeknife was difficult for some families but they hoped that would change.
Last week, the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute seven alleged IRA members and five former soldiers who worked with the army’s Force Research Unit.
Three of the soldiers had been handlers and the other two were more senior.
Scappaticci, who died last year in England, aged 77, is the only person to be found guilty of any offence by the investigators. In 2018, he was given a three-month suspended sentence after officers from Operation Kenova found extreme pornographic images on his laptop when they searched his home.
It has been alleged that Scappaticci’s handlers allowed him to take part in criminal activities that went well beyond what was permitted in the relevant guidance they were supposed to follow.
UK Home Office guidelines state that an agent should “not actively engage in planning or committing” crimes and should play only “a minor role”.
The guidelines also state: “The need to protect an informant does not justify granting him immunity from arrest or prosecution for the crime if he fully participates in it with the requisite intent.”
