The UK government has been urged to name the army’s top spy in the Provisional IRA after an independent investigation into his activities.
Operation Kenova found that more lives were probably lost than saved through the operation of Stakeknife, an agent who “committed grotesque, serious crime” including torture and murder.
The agent Stakeknife is widely believed to have been Freddie Scappaticci, a west Belfast man who was 77 when he died in 2023.
1946
Frederico “Freddie” Scappaticci is born in Belfast, the son of Italian immigrants.
1969
A bricklayer by trade, Scappaticci joins the Provisional IRA at the start of the Troubles and is active in the Markets area.
1971
Scappaticci is arrested and interned without trial with hundreds of other republicans.
1974
Released, Scappaticci resumes IRA activity, rises through the ranks and is re-arrested and again interned at Long Kesh.
1975
Released and resumes IRA activity.
1976-78
The date and circumstances are unclear but Scappaticci becomes an informer for security forces. He joins the IRA internal security unit known as the Nutting Squad that is tasked with rooting out informants. By the mid-1980s Scappaticci leads the unit, which interrogates, tortures and kills suspected informers, or “touts”. British security chiefs consider him a “golden egg” of counter-terrorism intelligence.
1990
Police disrupt an IRA interrogation of a suspected informant and arrest several IRA members but not Scappaticci. Some in the IRA suspect Scappaticci is a spy. His influence begins to wane.
1994
The IRA declares a ceasefire.
1999
The Sunday Times discloses the existence of a top security force mole in the IRA codenamed Stakeknife.
2003
Newspapers name Scappaticci as Stakeknife. He holds a press conference in Belfast to deny the allegations before fleeing to Britain and entering a witness protection programme. He lives anonymously in England.
2015
Northern Ireland prosecutors urge authorities to investigate Stakeknife and the role of his handlers in the murder of suspected informants.
2016
The Police Service of Northern Ireland outsources the investigation to Operation Kenova, a 50-strong team of detectives in England headed by Jon Boutcher, a former chief constable of Bedfordshire police.
2018
Westminster magistrates court sentences Scappaticci to three months in custody, suspended for 12 months, for possessing extreme pornography.
2019
Operation Kenova shares evidence about Scappaticci, his intelligence handlers and IRA members with prosecutors, who decline to press charges citing insufficient evidence.
2023
Scappaticci dies aged 77 from natural causes.
2024
Operation Kenova publishes an interim report saying Stakeknife probably took more lives than he saved.
2025
The final Kenova report is published, updating 10 recommendations made in the interim report, including a call for the UK government to acknowledge and apologise to bereaved families and surviving victims.
