{"id":176193,"date":"2025-12-09T23:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176193\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T23:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:04:08","slug":"stakeknife-report-criticises-mi5-for-withholding-information-on-top-ira-spy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176193\/","title":{"rendered":"Stakeknife report criticises MI5 for withholding information on top IRA spy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

An investigation into Britain\u2019s top IRA spy has criticised a \u201csignificant failure\u201d by MI5 to share information and said intelligence services had \u201ctime and again\u201d refused to act upon tips that could have saved lives.<\/p>\n

The nine-year Operation Kenova investigation found that MI5, the domestic UK intelligence agency, had more detailed information about the handling of Stakeknife \u2014 widely accepted to have been top IRA inquisitor Freddie Scappaticci<\/a> \u2014 than it had previously disclosed.<\/p>\n

That included two occasions when MI5 \u2014 which the report said was \u201cclosely involved with his handling\u201d \u2014 knew Stakeknife\u2019s military handlers had flown him by military plane out of Northern Ireland<\/a> on holiday when he was wanted by police on murder and other charges.<\/p>\n

The final report<\/a>, published on Tuesday, detailed \u201cstate failures to act legitimately with empathy and care\u201d. Prosecution files submitted to the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland implicated Stakeknife in 14 murders and the abduction of a further 15 people. <\/p>\n

\"FreddieFreddie Scappaticci at the 1987 funeral of IRA man Larry Marley \u00a9 Pacemaker Press<\/p>\n

In a statement alongside the report, Kenova said it had identified 3,517 intelligence reports from Stakeknife \u2014 but \u201ctime and again the reports were not acted upon, with the protection of the agent apparently more important than protecting those who could and should have been saved\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jon Boutcher, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who previously led Kenova, said the repeated withholding of information by security forces meant \u201cmurders that could and should have been prevented were allowed to take place and those responsible were not brought to justice\u201d. <\/p>\n

He told a news conference: \u201cInstead, they were left free to kill again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Claire Hanna, an MP who heads the small nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party, said Kenova \u201clays bare the bandit-style operations run by MI5, the FRU [the army\u2019s military intelligence Force Research Unit] and [police] Special Branch and their disregard for the basic human rights of ordinary citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s interim Operation Kenova report<\/a> found more lives were lost than were saved as a result of Stakeknife\u2019s actions during Northern Ireland\u2019s Troubles conflict.<\/p>\n

The report failed to name Stakeknife after the UK government cited its \u201cneither confirm nor deny\u201d policy for not confirming his identity. <\/p>\n

However, it is widely accepted to be Scappaticci, a notorious former senior member of the IRA\u2019s \u201cnutting squad\u201d tasked with dispatching informants with a bullet to the head, who died in 2023. <\/p>\n

Stakeknife had a career as a British spy from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and was feted as \u201cour most important secret\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009a golden egg\u201d of military intelligence by General Sir John Wilsey, who was in charge of the British army in Northern Ireland from 1990-93.<\/p>\n

The report found a special military unit known as the \u201crat hole\u201d was set up to help manage Stakeknife, whose handlers \u201croutinely massaged his ego\u201d and told if he stopped providing intelligence \u201cthe loss would be felt around the world\u201d. An MI5 officer was assigned to the rat hole unit.<\/p>\n

He was also given a special phone line he could call at any time, was paid \u201ctens of thousands of pounds\u201d and given help to purchase a property.<\/p>\n

Kenova uncovered material from MI5 that it had not received before its interim report. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the information in the additional files would not have altered prosecutorial decisions, further investigative opportunities were undoubtedly lost,\u201d Sir Iain Livingstone, the head of Kenova, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very fact that material owned and held by MI5 was not timeously disclosed understandably undermined the confidence of communities that state authorities had co-operated fully with Kenova. It was a significant failure on the part of MI5.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SirMI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum apologised for the delay in handing over information \u00a9 Jonathan Brady\/PA Wire<\/p>\n

The report also found that MI5 retrieved a file from a secure safe used by Kenova during its investigation at MI5\u2019s headquarters. Kenova changed the lock after the incident, which it said had eroded trust between investigators and the agency.<\/p>\n

MI5 director-general Sir Ken McCallum apologised for the delay in handing over information but said the agency had never \u201cdeliberately withheld\u201d anything.<\/p>\n

Livingstone called on the UK government to name Stakeknife now \u201cin the national interest\u201d and said the \u201cneither confirm nor deny\u201d policy \u201ccannot be used to protect agents who commit grotesque serious crime, leaving victims and families ignored and their demands for information and answers dismissed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s North Belfast MP John Finucane said the final report provided \u201cfurther confirmation of collusion, criminality and cover-up by the British state\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hilary Benn, the UK\u2019s Northern Ireland secretary, said the government\u2019s \u201cfirst duty is of course to protect national security and identifying agents risks jeopardising this\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-176193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}