However, the government feared Scappaticci would win because a judge would assume he was not Stakeknife and force ministers to be honest.
Jon Boutcher has now confirmed an extraordinary fact: the judge who heard the case did so after being secretly briefed on the real identity of Stakeknife.
That judge, the then Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Lord Carswell, ultimately allowed the government to maintain NCND, creating the legal precedent on the policy.
“The full facts about this and the government’s explanation will never be known while it is able to hide behind the shield of NCND,” Boutcher has said.
There is a second extraordinary fact: the government barrister who did the secret briefing was Philip Sales, who as Lord Sales was one of the Supreme Court justices in the Paul Thompson case. This fact was uncovered by the journalist John Ware.
This is an issue because it is Lord Sales’ ruling in the Thompson case which has a central bearing over whether Scappaticci can be named and more details revealed about what went on, including Lord Sales’ own role.
I asked the Supreme Court whether, given Lord Sales’ role in the Scappaticci matter, if it was appropriate for him to have heard the Thompson case.
In a statement, the court said: “Great care is taken in the selection of the panels which will hear a case at the UK Supreme Court.
“A Justice will not deal with a case where it is considered there is a conflict of interest and individual Justices are careful to ensure that they have none.”