Freddie Scappaticci[1] (c. 1946 – c. April 2023) was a Northern Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and a leading member of its Internal 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 have always denied any involvement with British intelligence.

Early life

Scappaticci was born around 1946 and grew up in the Markets area of Belfast, the son of Daniele Scappaticci, an Italian immigrant to the city in the 1920s.[1] Some sources have said his birth name was Alfredo, but he said that "Freddie" was the name on his birth certificate.[1][2] In 1962, at age 16, he was encouraged to sign for the football club Nottingham Forest although his father is said to have resisted the idea. He took up work as a bricklayer.[3]

Scappaticci was fined for riotous assembly in 1970 after being caught up in the Troubles and, a year later, was interned without trial at the age of 25 as part of Operation Demetrius.[3] Among those interned with him were figures later to become prominent in the republican movement, such as Ivor Bell, Gerry Adams, and Alex Maskey. He was released from detention in 1974 and was by this time a member of the Provisional IRA.[4]

Scappaticci married Sheila Cunningham, and they had six children.[2]

IRA career

By 1980, Scappaticci was a lead member in the Internal Security Unit (ISU) for the IRA Northern Command.[5] The ISU was a unit tasked with counter-intelligence and the investigation of leaks within the IRA and the exposure of moles or informers, known as "touts". Via the ISU, Scappaticci played a key role in investigating suspected informers, conducting inquiries into operations suspected of being compromised, debriefing of IRA volunteers released from Royal Ulster Constabulary and British Army questioning, and vetting of 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.[6] 18 killings as a result of ISU activities have been directly attributed to Scappaticci,[7] including the murders of two senior policeman[8] and a suspected informer named Joe Fenton.[6]

After the original allegations broke in 2003, Scappaticci, by now living in the Riverdale area of West Belfast, claimed his involvement with the IRA ended in 1990 due to his wife's illness. He denied that he had ever been linked to any facet of the British intelligence services, including the Force Research Unit.[9] He then left Northern Ireland and began living under witness protection.[2] He is known to have lived in Cheshire, Manchester, and London at different times, and briefly returned to Belfast in 2017, to attend his father's funeral.[10] He lived apart from his wife afterward, as she remained in Belfast, though they went on holiday together and were said to keep in contact until her death in 2019.[10][11]

Involvement with British intelligence

Scappaticci's first involvement with British intelligence is alleged to have been in 1978, two years before the Force Research Unit (FRU) was formed in 1980. He was said to have worked as an agent for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch.[12] The role of the FRU was to centralise Army Intelligence under the Intelligence Corps.

The former FRU agent turned whistleblower using the pseudonym "Martin Ingram" has said in his 2004 book Stakeknife that Scappaticci eventually developed into an agent 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.[13] In 2003, Scappaticci was alleged to have volunteered as an informer in 1978 after being assaulted in an argument with a fellow IRA member.[14] Ingram paints Scappaticci at this time as "the crown jewels", the best agent handled by the FRU. 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:

  • IRA members involved in the kidnapping of wealthy Irish supermarket magnate Ben Dunne in 1981. Ingram alleges that Scappaticci was influential in identifying his kidnappers to the authorities.[15]
  • the attempted kidnapping of Galen Weston, a Canadian born business tycoon in 1983. Weston kept a manor outside Dublin where the kidnapping was to take place.[16]
  • the kidnapping of supermarket boss Don Tidey from his home in Rathfarnham in Dublin. Ingram alleges that Scappaticci tipped off the FRU on the details of the kidnapping which eventually resulted in the killings of a trainee Garda Síochána (Gary Sheehan) and an Irish Army soldier (Private Patrick Kelly).[17]

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 centers on Ingram's allegation that the FRU killed individuals who might have exposed Scappaticci as an informer.[18]

Involvement with the Cook Report

In 1993 Scappaticci approached the ITV programme The Cook Report and agreed to an interview on his activities in the IRA and the alleged role of Martin McGuinness in the organization. The first interview took place on 26 August 1993 in the car park of the Culloden Hotel in Cultra, 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.[19]

Scappaticci appeared to give intimate details of the modus operandi of the IRA's Northern Command, indicated some of his previous involvement in the organisation and alleged, amongst 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 large Libyan arms cache, which the Gardaí found. Martin Ingram stated that Hegarty was a FRU agent whom other FRU members had encouraged to rise through the organisation and gain the confidence of key IRA members.[20]

Involvement with the Stevens Report

Things deteriorated for Scappaticci when Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan police commissioner, who was probing RUC and British Army collusion with loyalist paramilitaries in the killing of Protestant student Brian Adam Lambert in 1987 and the killing of solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989, revealed that he knew of his existence. In April 2004, Stevens signaled that he intended to question Scappaticci as part of the third Stevens inquiry.[21]

A report in a February 2007 edition of the Belfast 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 the PSNI in 2004 and subsequently passed to the Stevens Inquiry in 2005.[22] It is unclear whether this audio is a recording made via the Cook Report investigation. There were several inconsistencies with the various media reports alleging that Scappaticci was Stakeknife. The Provisional 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 British government to undermine Sinn Féin and the Republican movement.[23]

In January 2018, Scappaticci was arrested by police regarding offenses including murder and abduction, but was released on bail. On 5 December 2018, Westminster Magistrates' Court sentenced Scappaticci to 3 months imprisonment, suspended for 1 year, after he pleaded guilty to possessing "extreme pornographic images", including those which featured animals. The pornographic materials were uncovered during an investigation into serious crime during the Troubles.[24]

Death

On 11 April 2023, it was announced that Scappaticci had died the previous week at age 77. The Guardian reported that his health had deteriorated due to a series of strokes.[10] Because he was still living under witness protection, little information about his death was publicly revealed, and it was only announced after his burial had taken place.[2][7][25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Wallace, William (19 May 2003). "Trail for Truth on Alleged Spy in IRA Proves Tricky". Los Angeles Times. I don't know where Alfredo comes from. I have always been Freddie. It's on my birth certificate
  2. 1 2 3 4 Cowell, Alan (18 April 2023). "Freddie Scappaticci, Who May Have Been British Spy 'Stakeknife,' Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 Rosie Cowan. "He did the IRA's dirty work for 25 years – and was paid £80,000 a year by the government". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  4. ↑ By Scappaticci's own admission he joined the IRA in 1969, see interview with The Cook Report in External Links.
  5. ↑ "He did the IRA's dirty work for 25 years – and was paid £80,000 a year by the government", The Guardian, 12 May 2003; accessed 5 June 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Army's IRA spy Freddie Scappaticci admitted killing suspected informer". BBC News. 29 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  7. 1 2 Carroll, Rory (11 April 2023). "Man suspected of being Stakeknife, Britain's top spy in IRA, dies". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "Freddie Scappaticci was our most valuable spy in IRA during the Troubles", Belfast Telegraph; accessed 5 June 2014.
  9. ↑ Report on Scappaticci, rte.ie; 16 May 2003; accessed 5 June 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 Boffey, Daniel (14 April 2023). "'Too big to fail': why was army's man inside IRA, Freddie Scappaticci, never prosecuted?". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  11. ↑ "Wife of Freddie Scappaticci dies after lengthy illness". The Irish News. 1 November 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  12. ↑ McDonald, Henry (2 October 2019). "British spy in IRA and 20 others could be charged with Troubles-era crimes". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  13. ↑ "Freddie Scappaticci, suspected IRA informer 'Stakeknife', dead at 77". Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  14. ↑ Cowan, Rosie (12 May 2003). "He did the IRA's dirty work for 25 years – and was paid £80,000 a year by the government". The Guardian.
  15. ↑ Ireland's richest businessmen victims of 1980s kidnap epidemic Archived 15 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Paul T. Colgan, The Sunday Business Post, 22 September 2002, Retrieved 3 March 2009
  16. ↑ "Attempts to Abduct Rich Businessman in Ireland is Foiled". The New York Times. Associated Press. 8 August 1983. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  17. ↑ "Don Tidey: Gardaí honoured for bravery during kidnapping". BBC News. 24 September 2021.
  18. ↑ Joseph Fitsanikis (25 October 2015). "UK to probe role of high-ranking IRA informant in 24 murder cases". IntelNews.org. Retrieved 25 October 2015. 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.
  19. ↑ "Agent 6126: Scappaticci and his Army handlers played God… and so many people died". Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  20. ↑ Article by agent "Martin Ingram" on the abandonment of Operation Taurus and the killing of Frank Hegarty Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, cryptome.quintessenz.at/mirror/ingram-spies.htm; accessed 5 June 2014.
  21. ↑ "Scappaticci breaks cover to deny spy claims".
  22. ↑ "Stakeknife tape emerges after News Letter probe". Belfast News Letter. 5 February 2007.
  23. ↑ "Scappaticci's Nightmare". The Sunday Business Post. 31 August 2007. Archived from the original on 19 February 2006.
  24. ↑ "Freddie Scappaticci pleads guilty to animal pornography possession". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  25. ↑ "IRA informer 'Stakeknife' was known as 'jewel in the crown' of British intelligence". The Irish Times. 14 April 2023.
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