The head of Operation Kenova, a £40 million investigation into the conduct of the most prominent IRA informant within the British military in Northern Ireland, has expressed significant unease over MI5’s undisclosed intelligence that was not shared with the investigation team. Iain Livingstone raised his concerns with Northern Secretary Hilary Benn, after his team was tipped off about the emergence of hundreds of classified documents in April, a month following the publication of the inquiry’s seven-year provisional report in March.
The investigation’s report, which criticised the high-ranking double spy Stakeknife – perceived widely as Freddie Scappaticci, a resident of west Belfast – inferred that his activities during the Troubles resulted in more fatalities than lives saved. Scappaticci, who succumbed to death in 2023, oversaw the infamous internal security unit (ISU) or the ‘nutting squad’ of the IRA during the 1980s.
Due to a policy by the UK government of “neither confirm nor deny” (NCND) pertaining to sensitive intelligence matters, he was left unidentified in the report. Nonetheless, he has been associated with a minimum of 14 killings.
Iain Livingstone identified the newly surfaced MI5 documents as containing “significant new material which appears to point to new investigative leads not previously known”. Post investigation, none were convicted despite over 20 files relating to 35 individuals inclusive of alleged IRA members and ex-British military personnel being forwarded by the Kenova team to the North’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) owing to a lack of substantial evidence.
In conclusion, the interim report revealed the actions of a specialist unit within the British Army and the RUC special branch in deliberately concealing information from and about their agents, resulting in “very serious criminal offences, including murder, were not prevented or investigated when they could and should have been”.
A statement from Mr Livingstone on Wednesday confirmed that he has been in consultation with Stephen Herron, the director of PPS, and had a meeting with Mr Benn the previous week. An update on the recent events has been delivered to families who lost members to Stakeknife and participated in the Kenova inquiry.
The intelligence agency MI5 has reportedly informed investigators that they discovered the material in question during the digitalisation of their archives. Additional findings were made in July and investigations continue. According to Mr Livingstone, none of the unearthed files suggest further instances of murder connected to the agent Stakeknife and hence, no additional casualties align with the Operation Kenova’s remit based on the freshly revealed materials.
Despite this, the newly discovered materials seemingly cast doubt on some of the documents and testimonies accounted for by Kenova, as well as some statements made in the interim report. Particularly, questions are raised regarding the information provided by the security service about when they first identified agent Stakeknife, as mentioned in the letter from Mr Livingstone to Mr Benn.
He expresses serious concern that MI5 continues to supply further material to Operation Kenova almost eight years into its inception. This comes after all decisions in the prosecution reports by DPPNI have been finalised, following the publication of the Operation Kenova Interim report and just weeks before the upcoming Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023.
The final report from Kenova is projected to be published in the early part of the coming year.