Scappaticci breaks cover to deny spy claims

By DAVID McKITTRICK in Belfast

Freddie Scappaticci, a barrel-chested man in a short-sleeved shirt, yesterday stepped from the shadows to deny he was the infamous Stakeknife, the British Army secret agent at the heart of the IRA.

He did so at the west Belfast offices of his solicitor, confounding those who thought he had been spirited away to Britain by the authorities in order to save his life from a vengeful Irish Republican Army.

His appearance is the latest twist in the convoluted tale of Stakeknife, one of the IRA's most valuable informers, which gained huge impetus at the weekend when Scappaticci was named as the agent by several newspapers.

His denials yesterday were comprehensive. In a filmed interview with two Belfast journalists, Brian Rowan of the BBC and freelance Anne Cadwallader, he declared: "I am not guilty of any of these allegations.

"I have not left Northern Ireland since I was challenged by reporters on [Sunday]. Nobody has had the decency to ask me if any of these allegations were true."

Scappaticci, a grey-haired man in his late 50s, displayed perhaps surprising composure during his interview, his hands and his gaze both steady. He said he did not know why the allegations had been made against him.

Asked whether he had been in the IRA, he said he had been in the republican movement but had not been involved for 13 years.

His solicitor, Michael Flanigan, said he had been instructed to examine all recently published material with a view to taking defamation proceedings, saying his client had never been involved in any criminal activity and had a clear record.

"The media coverage of this story has been reckless and extremely damaging to my client," he said.

His client had left home on Monday, he said, not because of security force or paramilitary activity but "solely because of the media onslaught upon his character".

The republican movement yesterday raised no objections to Scappaticci's continuing presence in Belfast, though it stopped short of having any of its more prominent members appear with him.

At a separate news conference, Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly said: "I have no reason to want to speak to Mr Scappaticci and I don't think republicans will want to do it either."

He concentrated on attacking "faceless and nameless securocrats in British intelligence who made a raft of serious but unsubstantiated allegations against Freddie Scappaticci".

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, has said he wishes to interview Stakeknife as part of his collusion inquiry.

Flanigan said yesterday his client had not been contacted by the Stevens investigation team.

Yesterday's appearance may have cleared up the immediate question of Scappaticci's whereabouts, but many mysteries remain in the Stakeknife affair.

While the most exotic and convoluted theories abound in Northern Ireland, the west Belfast man could hardly have been evacuated to England on Monday, then returned to the city for yesterday's appearance without the knowledge of his family at least.

It is further difficult to know how the IRA and Sinn Fein could have absolute confidence in the man's republican loyalties, given his reported role in the movement.

Stakeknife has been described by a number of sources as one of the IRA's chief interrogators of alleged informers in its ranks.

Republicans would hardly give Scappaticci, or indeed any republican no matter how respected, the benefit of the doubt after such a torrent of allegations without thorough investigation.

In dealing with Stakeknife they would be questioning an individual who would be both highly cunning and almost uniquely skilled in interrogation techniques.

Scappaticci, whatever his involvement, will inevitably be carefully watched in future not only by republicans but by his neighbours in the tight-knit west Belfast community.

Thus any move by Sir John Stevens to question Scappaticci, in the belief that he is Stakeknife, would without doubt be visible and would regenerate suspicions.

The 13-year period which, according to Scappaticci, has passed since his involvement in republican activity coincides with the January 1990 incident in which an informer was rescued from a west Belfast house.

The informer named Scappaticci at a subsequent trial as one of his interrogators, but he was not charged and had reportedly gone on the run in the Irish Republic. He was said to have returned to Belfast several years later.

Reflecting the general confusion surrounding the issue, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told the Irish Parliament yesterday that when he raised intelligence matters with the British he was usually less wise afterwards than before.

He said he had no new information on Stakeknife. Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen is to raise the matter again next week with Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy.

The Government, meanwhile, fended off a request for information from Labour backbencher Kevin McNamara.

McNamara said at Westminster that if the allegations about Stakeknife were true, "he would be guilty of colluding in the murders of IRA volunteers, police officers, soldiers and civilians".

"If true, these allegations go to the heart of British involvement in unlawful actions in pursuit of its objectives in Northern Ireland.

"In light of the public naming of Freddie Scappaticci as agent Stakeknife, I urge the Government to end uncertainty around his position and to ensure that no impediments are placed in the way of his questioning by the Stevens inquiry."

Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy refused to comment on speculation on the whereabouts and identity of the alleged agent or on arrangements for his safety.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble urged the Government to show caution, saying while there was clamour for more information about the activities of agents to be made public, there was reason why much material had to remain secret.

- INDEPENDENT