"Stakeknife" is the code name of a high-level

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

who successfully infiltrated the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...

(IRA) while working for the top-secret Force Research Unit (FRU) of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. Reports claim that Stakeknife worked for British intelligence for 25 years. Stakeknife has been accused of being a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...

who oversaw the murders of informers within the IRA while working for the British. British officials launched

Operation Kenova Operation Kenova is a criminal investigation into whether the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland failed to investigate as many as 18 murders in order to protect a high level double agent codenamed Stakeknife working for the Force Resea ...

to investigate these claims of state involvement in the kidnap, torture and murder of more than 50 individuals, leading to the arrest of Freddie Scappaticci in January 2018 on accusations that he was Stakeknife—a claim which Scappaticci denied.

Activity

"Stakeknife" had his own dedicated handlers and agents, and it was suggested that he was important enough that

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

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 in

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. Serious allegations have emerged to the effect that the British government allowed up to 40 people to be killed via the IRA's

Internal Security Unit The Internal Security Unit (ISU) was the counter-intelligence and interrogation unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). This unit was often referred to as the Nutting Squad. The unit is thought to have had jurisdiction over both No ...

or "Nutting Squad" to protect his cover.

Purported exposure

In 1987, Sam McCrory, an

Ulster Defence Association The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...

/"Ulster Freedom Fighters" member, killed the 66-year-old Francisco Notarantonio at his home in Ballymurphy in West Belfast. The UDA/UFF had decided to target a senior Belfast IRA member who unbeknownst to them was an informer for the Force Research Unit (FRU). It has been alleged that FRU agent Brian Nelson gave Notarantonio's name to the UDA/UFF to protect the identity of the real spy. On 11 May 2003, several newspapers named Freddie Scappaticci as Stakeknife. Scappaticci, born in Belfast to Italian parents, denied the claims and launched an unsuccessful legal action to have the British government state he was not their agent. He later left Northern Ireland and was rumoured to be living in Cassino, Italy. There were also reported sightings in

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

. A report in a February 2007 edition of the ''

Belfast News Letter The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737. The newspape ...

'' 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 The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ga, Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ') is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it was reform ...

in 2004 and subsequently passed to the Stevens Inquiry in 2005. The former British Intelligence agent who worked in the FRU known as "

Martin Ingram Martin Ingram is the pseudonym of ex-British Army soldier Ian Hurst, who served in the Intelligence Corps and Force Research Unit (FRU). He has made a number of allegations about the conduct of the British Army, its operations in Northern Ire ...

" has written a book titled ''Stakeknife'' since the original allegations came to light in which it says Scappaticci was the agent in question. In October 2015, it was announced that Scappaticci was to be investigated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland over at least 24 murders. In June 2016, it was announced that this investigation would be carried out by Bedfordshire Police and would examine the possible involvement of members of the RUC, Army and MI5 in murders carried out by the IRA, and their knowledge of them through the information supplied via Stakeknife. Scappaticci was arrested in connection with Operation Kenova in January 2018. On 29 October 2020, the

Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPSNI) is the department of the Northern Ireland Executive responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in Northern Ireland. It is headed by the Director of ...

decided that there was insufficient evidence to put him on trial on charges of perjury. 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. This means that there is little chance of him appearing in a criminal trial, despite a multimillion pound investigation into his role as a state agent inside the IRA.

References

External links

Operation Kenova
{{PIRA Provisional Irish Republican Army British spies Espionage scandals and incidents Irish spies during The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Unidentified people

Activity

Purported exposure

References

Further reading

External links