REVEALED | Upmarket £500k hideway British state bought for IRA agent ‘Stakeknife’

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/upmarket-500k-hideway-british-state-bought-for-ira-agent-stakeknife/a1963529457.html

Security services forked out for lavish pad for Scappaticci in town that was rocked by IRA bombings

The five-bedroom house in Guildford, Surrey, British security services bought for IRA agent Freddie ‘Stakeknife’ Scappaticci (left). The house has since been sold and is in private ownership

Hugh Jordan

The large detached home seen here is where the not-so-secret agent Freddie Scappaticci – the British army’s top man inside the IRA – lived out the final decades of his deceitful double life.

A five-bedroom villa on the edge of Guildford town centre in the heart of Surrey was especially selected for him as a retirement home.

And we have learned it was bought and paid for by his paymasters in the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.

It’s since been sold to a family with no connections to its notorious previous owners.

Yesterday Paul Wilson, the son of one of Scappaticci’s victims who visited Guildford to see the home, said: “Freddie Scappaticci wanted for nothing in Guildford, but my mother struggled to bring up four children on her own.”

The once top IRA man, originally from the Market area of Belfast, lived here in the lap of luxury – but alone and with very few visitors, save for a string of high-class hookers.

According to a former neighbour who spoke to the Sunday World this week, Scappaticci booked their services over the internet. “We just thought he was a retired property developer who liked to keep himself to himself, apart from his girlfriends that is,” he said, adding that Scappaticci went by the name of ‘Frank Conway’.

Ex-MI5 chief would have aborted ‘disgraceful’ Stakeknife operation

And it now appears Scappaticci’s service was so valuable to his British paymasters that they were determined to make the remainder of his life after he fled Belfast as comfortable as possible.

Surrounded by high privet hedges and protected by wrought iron gates, the villa came with state-of-the-art security.

“After the IRA bombed Guildford 50 years ago, a huge amount of security money was poured into it to make it one of the safest towns in England,” a former neighbour of Scappaticci’s told us.

He added: “We only discovered the real truth about Frank Conway when the Kenova team arrived with machine-guns and took him away in handcuffs. He was eventually convicted on porn charges.”

Well-heeled residents living near Scap’s hideaway say the overweight Irishman claimed he had been “in construction”, although he rarely engaged in any conversation.

He said hello to fellow dog walkers when exercising his pet cocker spaniel at the nearby 410-acre Whitmoor Common nature reserve, which backed on to his five-bedroom luxury house.

And we can also reveal Scappaticci treated himself to a new car every year he operated as a British army spy.

Before fleeing Belfast, Scappaticci – believed to be on a British army salary of £80,000 per annum – was a regular customer in car showrooms at Boucher Crescent. And this week we learned that the last vehicle he bought shortly before he died two years ago was a high-spec silver Mercedes.

“He loved his Mercedes and he kept it in tip-top condition,” said Scappaticci’s former neighbour.

But as Scap lived the high life under the protection of the British state, his victims’ families were left heartbroken and seeking the truth.

How many NI women have been failed by authorities because protection of an agent was prioritised above their safety?

Belfast bus driver Paul Wilson (37) was just nine months old when his dad Emmanuel was abducted and murdered by the IRA on Scappaticci’s orders.

A member of the Workers’ Party in west Belfast, father-of-four Thomas Emmanuel Wilson (35) was gripped by a Provo gang on June 23, 1987.

His lifeless body was found dumped the next day in an alleyway at Rodney Parade off the Donegall Road in west Belfast.

He had been shot and his hands were tied behind his back and he had no shoes on.

It later emerged Mr Wilson had been interrogated by the Provos’ chief spy-catcher Scappaticci, who accused him of being an RUC informer. At the time it was strenuously denied by his family and friends.

And yesterday Paul Wilson also dismissed the claim as nonsense: “My father wasn’t even a member of their organisation. He was a member of the Workers’ Party. What did he know about the Provos? Nothing,” he said.

Paul explained how he recently travelled to the south of England with the intention of seeing for himself Scappaticci’s half-million-pound hideaway and the lifestyle he enjoyed in his final years.

And yesterday in an interview with the Sunday World, Paul said he was astonished at the level of luxury British spooks provided for their top man inside the IRA.

He said: “As far as I can see, the IRA was the best paid section of the British Army. Freddie Scappaticci wanted for nothing in Guildford, but my mother struggled to bring up four children on her own.”

Father-of-two Paul explained how being only nine months old when his father lost his life, he knew very little about Scappaticci and his IRA ‘Nutting Squad’.

“It was the arrival of the Historic Enquiries Team in my mother’s home which sparked my interest,” said Paul.

“I was a teenager and I had begun asking questions about my dad. I found out my dad had been murdered. I had to take that on board. I wanted to know why this had happened. I didn’t get the full story all in one lump, but gradually I was able to piece it all together.

“It was clear the IRA accused him of [being] something he wasn’t. It was absolute lies,” he said.

“As the years passed it was clear the HET was getting nowhere. As a family we felt let down again. But when Kenova came along, we thought ‘this is it. We’ve one last chance to get to the bottom of this.'

“Jon Boutcher and five of his top investigators came to mum’s house and explained how things worked. We were told that whatever they found out, we would be told.

“We moved on eight years and Covid hit in the middle of it. But eventually a file relating to my dad’s case was sent from Kenova to the PPS.

“But the PPS sat on it for over two years,” said Paul. He added: “The only conclusion I can come to over the delay is that they are protecting another agent inside the IRA.”

However, it was the death of Scappaticci which Paul believes finished their chances of finally seeing a prosecution for his father’s murder.

“As you know, Scappaticci died in 2023. And within 24 hours the PPS issued a statement saying any anticipated prosecutions relating to Kenova would be dropped because it was impossible to charge a deceased person,” said Paul.

The Wilson family then had a final meeting with the Kenova team. Said Paul: “They told us there was only one name in my dad’s file and that was Scappaticci but because he had died, there wouldn’t be any prosecution.”

He added: “My mum then received a two-page letter explaining it, but we were never told why the PPS decision took two years.”

Scappaticci died aged 77 after a series of strokes. Kenova boss Jon Boutcher flew to England to see the dead body for himself.

But the hopes of dozens of families whose lives were broken as a result of Scappaticci’s activities were again left devastated.

“It now looks as though we’ll never get justice,” said Paul.

Kenova is the investigation into the activities of the agent codenamed ‘Stakeknife’.

But heartbroken families – whose loved ones had been sent to their deaths on Stakeknife’s orders – have been left feeling they have been denied justice.

In republican paramilitary circles where many IRA men spent years behind bars, Scappaticci is still known as the man who literally got away with murder – dozens of them.

A bricklayer by trade, Scappaticci suddenly fled his smart west Belfast home 20 years ago when it emerged that – despite previous denials – he had indeed been the British army’s main undercover agent inside the IRA and the man army intelligence bosses code-named Stakeknife.

After initially guarding Scappaticci inside a British army camp, Whitehall mandarins purchased the upmarket detached home seen here for him.

Famous for its historic cobbled High Street, Scap’s new home town of Guildford in Surrey is just 27 miles from central London. And it is viewed as the gateway to the picturesque South Downs.

And we have learned the luxury detached property he came to call home came with a price tag of around £500,000. It was paid for by the Ministry of Defence.

Ironically, the house is within walking distance of two pubs the IRA bombed 50 years ago, killing four British soldiers and an innocent civilian.

It is now accepted Scappaticci had been the ‘golden egg’ of Military Intelligence for much of the Troubles, supplying his military bosses with detailed reports on IRA operations and personnel.

“Everything went through Scappaticci. He was head of internal security,” a former IRA man told us this week.

“There was nothing he didn’t know or couldn’t find out.”