Britain’s ‘golden egg’: how IRA agent Freddie Scappaticci was protected to the end

In his dual role as a British agent and head of the IRA’s so-called ‘nutting squad’, Scappaticci would threaten to string up and skin his victims before offering to let them go free if they confessed. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

When Freddie Scappaticci, 77, suffered the stroke on the morning of 16 February 2023 that would kill him, he had not worked for two decades.

It was nevertheless in a spacious and comfortable home, known as Homeleigh, that he fell ill; a four-bedroom detached property with a double garage and a large, if dated, kitchen that led through French doors to a sprawling garden, with a wendy house half buried in the lush green hedge at the back.