MI5 impeded inquiry into Stakeknife agent who murdered for IRA, says official report

Freddie Scappaticci was a mole at the heart of the IRA who is believed to have cost more lives than he saved. Photograph: PA

Britain’s security services allowed a top agent inside the IRA to commit murders and then impeded a police investigation into the affair, according to a damning official report.

MI5 helped the double agent known as Stakeknife to evade justice from a “perverse sense of loyalty” that outlasted Northern Ireland’s Troubles, the police investigation known as Operation Kenova said on Tuesday.