Freddie Scappaticci

IRA activity By 1980, Scappaticci had become a senior figure in the IRA's Internal Security Unit, part of IRA Northern Command. Scappaticci was reported to have admitted involvement in the murder of Joe Fenton, a suspected informer killed by the IRA in 1989. The allegation was repeated in later reporting and by former intelligence personnel. Operation Kenova later rejected claims that Stakeknife had saved hundreds of lives. Its interim and final reports estimated that intelligence attributable to Stakeknife saved between high single figures and low double figures of identifiable lives, and concluded that it was probable that more lives were lost than saved as a consequence of his continued operation as an agent.

One frequently cited allegation concerned the 1987 killing of Francisco Notarantonio, a 66-year-old Belfast man shot by loyalist gunmen. The Guardian reported that Notarantonio's name had been passed to loyalists by FRU agent Brian Nelson in order to divert attention away from Stakeknife.

Media recordings In 1993, Scappaticci met representatives of the ITV programme The Cook Report and discussed IRA activity and the alleged role of Martin McGuinness in the organisation. The meeting took place on 26 August 1993 in the car park of the Culloden Hotel in Cultra, County Down, and was recorded without Scappaticci's knowledge. The recording later became public after the 2003 Stakeknife allegations.

The Kenova final report said that the belief that Scappaticci had betrayed the republican movement by acting as an agent, and the knowledge that he had spoken to The Cook Report, put his life at risk and led to his resettlement in England under a new identity at public expense.

Operation Kenova and legal proceedings In October 2015, the Police Service of Northern Ireland announced that Stakeknife would be investigated in connection with at least 24 murders. In June 2016, it was announced that the investigation, known as Operation Kenova, would be led by Bedfordshire Police and would examine alleged crimes by IRA members, British Army personnel, police officers and others.

The Kenova interim report was published in March 2024. In 2025, the High Court in London ordered that his will be sealed because public inspection would be undesirable or inappropriate.

Undisclosed files