Call for government and republican apologies over Operation Kenova report on Scappaticci (Stakeknife)

The former Operation Kenova lead and current PSNI Chief Executive said the families of those who lost loved ones as a result of a series of kidnappings, tortures and murders linked to the alleged army agent inside the IRA, deserved apologies from the State and republican movement

The £40m investigation examined the alleged double agent’s activities during the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr. Boutcher said: “This report leaves little doubt that the republican leadership was responsible for numerous dreadful crimes, many of which the Government failed to prevent.

“At the heart of Operation Kenova has always been the families and loved ones of the victims of that brutality. They have been denied the truth of what happened for too long.

“Today is an important step in delivering that truth and finally giving them answers they so desperately deserve. The Government and Republican leadership now need to acknowledge their roles in this awful section of history and both should apologise to families.”

The interim report does not reveal the identity of Stakeknife due to the Government’s policy of Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND), but makes clear that:

• He did exist and was an individual rather than a collective of different agents as has been speculated by some;
• He was involved in very serious and wholly unjustifiable criminality, including murder;
• Claims that his intelligence saved 'countless' or 'hundreds' of lives are exaggerated;
• The number of lives he saved is between high single figures and low double figures and nowhere near hundreds;
• It is likely that his crimes as an agent resulted in more lives being lost than were saved.

It makes 10 recommendations.

16 people – nine civilians, six military, one police – investigated by Kenova ‘Stakeknife’ probe will not be prosecuted

They are as follows:

1. Establish, on a statutory basis and with express statutory powers and duties, an independent framework and apparatus for investigating legacy cases.
2. Subject all public authorities to an unqualified and enforceable legal obligation to cooperate with and disclose information and records to those charged with conducting legacy investigations under a new structure.
3. Enact legislation to provide procedural time limits enforced by judicial case management to handle cases passing from a new legacy structure to the criminal justice system.
4. Review and reform the resourcing and operating practices of the Public Prosecution Service in connection with legacy cases.
5. The longest day, 21 June, should be designated as a day when we remember those lost, injured or harmed as a result of the Troubles.
6. Review, codify and define the proper limits of the NCND policy as it relates to the identification of agents and its application in the context of Northern Ireland legacy cases pre-dating the Good Friday Agreement.
7. Review the security classification of previous legacy reports in order that their contents and (at the very least) their principle conclusions and recommendations can be declassified and made public.
8. PPSNI should pay due regard to the views, interests and well-being of victims and families when considering the public interest factors relevant to prosecution decisions in legacy cases.
9. The United Kingdom government should acknowledge and apologise to bereaved families and surviving victims affected by cases where an individual was harmed or murdered because they were accused or suspected of being an agent and where this was preventable or where the perpetrators could and should have been subjected to criminal justice and were not.
10. The republican leadership should issue a full apology for PIRA’s abduction, torture and murder of those it accused or suspected of being agents during the Troubles and acknowledge the loss and unacceptable intimidation bereaved families and surviving victims have suffered.

The report, which was largely completed by Mr. Boutcher but published on Friday under the stewardship of Iain Livingstone, Officer In Overall Command of Operation Kenova.

Seven IRA members and five British soldiers not to be prosecuted under Operation Kenova probe into Freddie Scappaticci

It refers to the allegations that Scappaticci, who died last April, was active during the Troubles as both a senior member of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU) and an army agent codenamed Stakeknife.

It states that Operation Kenova investigated 101 murders and abductions in total.

It says claims emanating from British Army intelligence that alleged agents such as Scappaticci and agents such as Brian Nelson – a member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and agent of the Force Research Unit (FRU) – saved hundreds of lives were not true.

“At the macro level, I have already touched on the widespread belief among some in the security forces that Stakeknife saved ‘countless’ or ‘hundreds’ of lives. He did not. The claim that he did emanates from the FRU which made a similar and equally exaggerated claim about Brian

Nelson.

Death of 'Stakeknife' accused Freddie Scappaticci cannot impede work of Operation Kenova - Derry MLA

"Indeed, sweeping claims of this kind, particularly when linked to a single source operating over a long period of time within a security-conscious terrorist organisation, are inherently implausible and should ring alarm bells.

"Any serious security and intelligence professional hearing an agent being likened to ‘the goose that laid the golden eggs’ - as Stakeknife has been - should be on the alert because the comparison is rooted in fables and fairy tales.

"In theory, a well-placed agent within an active terrorist group could provide valuable information about a series of threats to life over a long period of time. In practice, the use of that information to avoid or prevent such threats on more than a handful of occasions would invariably put the agent under suspicion and lead to their compromise and withdrawal,” the report states.

Mr. Boucher estimates the ‘number of identifiable individuals whose lives were saved in reliance on information provided by Stakeknife - through relocation, warning or other intervention - is between high single figures and low double figures and nowhere near hundreds’.

Files were sent to the PPS in relation to several British soldiers and IRA members alleged to have been involved in murders examined by Kenova but it was concluded that there was insufficient evidence to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction.

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