Stakeknife could face perjury charges, says senior police officer

An alleged British secret agent in the IRA who is accused of being linked to at least 20 murders while working for military intelligence could be charged with perjury for denying in court he was a spy, a senior UK police officer has told the Guardian.

Stakeknife, whose real name is believed to be Freddie Scappaticci, was the IRA’s chief spy catcher and received £80,000 each year as one of Britain’s most important agents within the terror group. It is alleged that his army and police handlers turned a blind eye to murders in order to promote their agent inside the IRA’s ranks.

Police are now investigating the person known as Stakeknife as part of Operation Kenova, a £35m investigation into his alleged role as an agent working for military intelligence within the IRA’s internal security department also known in Irish republican circles as “the nutting squad”.

Scappaticci has never been prosecuted for his alleged role and denied being a spy when in 2003 he went to the Belfast high court to force the then Northern Ireland security minister Jane Kennedy to state publicly that he was not Stakeknife.

His legal team at the time argued that the minister’s refusal to deny he was a top-level agent inside the IRA amounted to a failure to protect his life.

The officer leading the investigation, Jon Boutcher, the chief constable of Bedfordshire police, said perjury was one line of inquiry police were investigating.

In a statement to the Guardian, Boutcher said that perjury allegations was one line his inquiry team was looking at to get Scappaticci into a criminal court hearing.

“Perjury is part of the terms of reference of the initial investigation remit, which are available on the Operation Kenova website. This is very much being pursued … whether there is evidence of the commission of criminal offences by any persons in respect of allegations of perjury connected to the alleged agent,” he said.

A number of individuals connected to the Stakeknife scandal have claimed perjury is the easiest way to ensure the alleged spy will appear in a court of law.

The whistleblower who first publicly identified Stakeknife as Scappaticci, the former Force Research Unit soldier Ian Hurst, has described the perjury route as a “slam dunk” if Boutcher and his detectives decide to prosecute on that front.

Boutcher rejected concerns that Stakeknife would never be prosecuted because he has damaging information on his military handlers and senior figures in the IRA and Sinn Féin, which might be disclosed should he appear in an open court.

Boutcher said: “My intention has always been clear – to establish the truth regarding these murders, kidnappings and crimes of torture on behalf of the victims and their families. I will do everything in my power to achieve that. I have promised the families that I will do my utmost and I will be true to my word. I am very determined that we will get to the truth and ultimately put people before the courts.

“I would not be doing this investigation if I did not believe that a prosecution would follow. Time will tell whether this proves to be the case but to be very clear I will do everything within my power to reveal what happened.”

He continued: “I would not have taken on the investigation unless I believed we could identify those responsible for the offences under investigation and bring them before the court.”

Boutcher said he was aware that certain forces were briefing against Operation Kenova.

He said: “Some people will brief against the investigation to the media because they fear the investigation or because the investigation is not pandering to their needs. It is utterly focused on victims.”

He also confirmed that his detectives have spoken to a number of individuals including those who were “interrogated” by Stakeknife and his IRA “nutting squad”.

This nickname was given to the unit because very often the IRA members picked up, questioned and interrogated by the unit were shot in the head after they admitted they had been working for the security forces.

The Guardian has spoken to one former senior Belfast IRA member who was questioned this summer by detectives from Operation Kenova. The IRA veteran had faced an internal investigation into what happened to the proceeds of a robbery in the mid 1980s that involved the Provisional IRA working alongside ordinary criminals.

He told the Guardian he had relayed his scepticism to the detectives about any possible prosecution of Stakeknife because he believed him to have secreted a large number of tape recordings containing potentially embarrassing details about his army handlers, FRU operatives, killings in which the IRA was involved and the role of senior republicans who are now prominent politicians in ordering the interrogation and murder of suspected informers.

“I made clear that I wasn’t going to cooperate with them because I still believe this is going nowhere. Stakeknife will never appear in court because the day he does someone will release those tapes,” the former Belfast IRA man said.

The ‘jewel in the crown’

Former commander of British forces in Northern Ireland General Sir John Wilsey described their agent Stakeknife as the “jewel in the crown” in terms of army intelligence’s secret war against the IRA.

For 20 years they had control of a man who was tasked within the Provisional IRA to hunt down other suspected agents and informers, and who had deep insight into the highest echelons of the IRA.

• 2003 Stakeknife is identified as Freddie Scappaticci by a former soldier in the army’s secretive Force Research Unit, Ian Hurst. He is alleged to have been recruited as an agent by RUC Special Branch in Belfast in 1978 and later handed over to military intelligence controllers. Scappaticci uses press conference at a West Belfast solicitor’s office to deny he was the agent Stakeknife.
  

• 2004 A cassette recording of Scappaticci’s voice is uncovered briefing journalists from ITV’s The Cook Report in 1993 which included information he said implicated the late Martin McGuinness (future deputy first minister of Northern Ireland) in the murder of an IRA informer, Frank Hegarty.
  

• 2015 Northern Ireland director of public prosecutions orders the Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable to launch probes into the alleged activities of Stakeknife.
  

• 2016 Theresa May under the advice of PSNI chief constable George Hamilton sets up Operation Kenova, which will be given up to five years and £35m to investigate allegations that Stakeknife was allowed to get away with crimes, including murder, to advance as a spy within the Provisional IRA for at least two decades.