Stakeknife, also known as Freddie Scappaticci, was a top-level British spy who operated within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. While serving as a double agent, he was responsible for the deaths of at least 50 people in the IRA. However, in recent years, allegations have surfaced that suggest Scappaticci used his position to falsely accuse innocent victims of being informants in order to protect himself. In this article, we delve deeper into these accusations and explore the potential consequences for those affected.
Freddie Scappaticci, a former British military agent who infiltrated the Irish Republican Army (IRA), has died at the age of 75. Scappaticci, also known as “Stakeknife”, was the head of the IRA’s internal security unit (dubbed the “nutting squad”), which carried out dozens of executions of alleged informants. Many of the victims were tortured before being summarily executed and their bodies dumped on a remote border road. Their families were left with the stigma of their loved ones being branded as informants, the worst possible allegation to be levelled at a republican.
Scappaticci was himself shrouded in controversy. He was accused of being responsible for dozens of deaths, directly or indirectly, by members of his own organisation. Good republicans died because they got too close to outing him as an informant, according to one source. Estimates of the number of deaths directly attributable to Scappaticci vary from a dozen to as many as 30.
The victims included Michael Kearney (20), from Belfast, who was found dead on the Concession Road in Clones in July 1979. The IRA later apologised to his family that he had been executed. Patrick Trainor (28), from Belfast, was shot dead at Upton Cottages in Belfast in February 1981. The following year John Torbitt (28) was shot dead at his Lenadoon home in the city. Two months later Seamus Morgan (24), from Dungannon, was found dead in the south Armagh village of Forkhill. Patrick Scott (27), from west Belfast, was found shot dead in west Belfast in 1982.
Damien McCroy (20) was shot in the head in the Drumrallagh Estate in Strabane, Co Tyrone. Patrick Murray (30) was shot dead and his body found in west Belfast in 1986, in the shadow of Clonard Catholic monastery. Eamon Maguire (33), from Finglas in Dublin, was accused by republicans of being a Garda informer. His body was found on the main Dundalk to Castleblayney Road a quarter of a mile north of the border. John McAnulty (48), from Warrenpoint in Co Down, was abducted in summer 1989 from a pub in Armagh. His body was recovered in Crossmaglen in south Armagh. Rory Finnis (21), from Derry, was found dead in June 1991 at Central Drive in the city’s Creggan estate. His hands had been tied behind his back and his eyes taped closed. He was shot in the head.
Thomas Oliver (33), from Riverstown in Dundalk, Co Louth, was discovered in July 1991, days after his birthday. His body was found in a field in Belleeks in Co Armagh. In the same area, on the Mountain Road, John Dignam (32) was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head on the first day of July 1992. He was from Portadown in Co Armagh. Two other alleged informers from Portadown were found dead the same day. Gregory Burns was 33. His remains were recovered on the Cullaville Road, close to the border. Aiden Starrs (29) was also shot in the head. His body was found on the Dundalk Road in Newtownhamilton.
Two more, Robin Hill (22), from Coalisland in Co Tyrone, and John Holmes (35), from Derry, were found dead in similar circumstances before the end of 1992. In June 1993, the remains of Joseph Mulhern, from Belfast, were discovered at Ballymongan in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, six days before his 24th birthday. His father, Frank, met Scappaticci days after his son had been murdered and Scappaticci seemed to revel in revealing sick details of the execution. “Scap said that the first shot had hit my son in the back of the neck and he told the guy whoever shot him to shoot again, so the second shot hit him in the back of the head and apparently that’s what killed him,” Frank said.
The news of Scappaticci’s death will frustrate many families who have been waiting for over six years for the publication of the Operation Kenova report. Operation Kenova is an independent investigation established to examine the activities of Stakeknife and other military agents provident by the British state. Many families have been waiting for justice for decades and the death of Scappaticci may mean that justice will never be served not just for the victims but also for their families.
