{"id":257820,"date":"2025-12-30T09:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T09:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/257820\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T09:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T09:56:08","slug":"concerns-over-possibility-of-stakeknife-suicide-raised-in-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/257820\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns over possibility of Stakeknife suicide raised in 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were concerns that Stakeknife<\/strong> \u2013 the British Army\u2019s top spy in the Provisional IRA<\/strong>\u2019s internal security unit during the Troubles \u2013 was \u201ca danger to himself\u201d in 2003, according to Irish Government documents.<\/p>\n

The agent has been described as one of the British Army\u2019s most prized assets, bringing them information from within the heart of the Provisional IRA at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

The publication of the final Operation Kenova report earlier this month revealed the cultivation and recruitment of the spy, widely reported to have been the now deceased west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, started in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n

Stakeknife operated as an agent into the early 1990s, and his motivation was described as being \u201clinked to a risk he was facing criminal prosecution\u201d or a \u201cdesire for financial gain\u201d.<\/p>\n

An earlier report from Kenova found that more lives were probably lost than saved through the operation of Stakeknife, an agent who \u201ccommitted grotesque, serious crime\u201d including torture and murder.<\/p>\n

\n There are concerns that Stakeknife might now also be a danger to himself.<\/p>\n

Irish Government file, 2003\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As part of the annual release of previously confidential Government files from the National Archives of Ireland, it has been revealed that there were concerns over a \u201crisk of suicide\u201d around Stakeknife.<\/p>\n

That handwritten note was added to a typed report on a phone call between an investigator at the Stevens Inquiry, which examined security forces’ collusion, and an Irish Department of Foreign Affairs official on May 21, 2003.<\/p>\n

The document, stamped \u201cseen by Taoiseach\u201d, came days after Mr Scappaticci was named in several media outlets \u2013 with the inquiry official seemingly corroborating the reports.<\/p>\n

When asked if the inquiry planned to interview him, the senior Department of Foreign Affairs figure records the response from the Stevens Inquiry investigator that it was \u201cway too early for that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Further asked if there were \u201chealth and safety concerns\u201d for Stakeknife, the inspector said it was \u201cnot our concern\u201d and that \u201cMI5 and the PSNI are presumably looking after him\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, it is noted that the agent may have opted not to avail of protection.<\/p>\n

\"OperationKenova chief Sir Iain Livingstone and Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Jon Boutcher. Photo: Liam McBurney\/PA.<\/p>\n

The reference to \u201chealth and safety concerns\u201d is marked in pen with an asterisk \u2013 directing to a handwritten note from a different Department official on the bottom of the page, dated May 22, which states \u201cthere are concerns that Stakeknife might now also be a danger to himself (risk of suicide)\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the publication of the final Kenova report, PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher said Mr Scappaticci remained a critical person of interest at the heart of the investigation, and strong evidence was found implicating him in serious criminality.<\/p>\n

Mr Scappaticci was arrested, interviewed under caution, and files on him were submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

In 2018, he was convicted in England for possession of extreme pornography. In March 2023, before any prosecution decisions were announced, he died aged 77.<\/p>\n

He was never charged with or convicted of any Troubles-related offences, and always denied any wrongdoing or involvement with the security forces.<\/p>\n

UK authorities have declined to officially identify Stakeknife, a position described by Mr Boutcher as \u201cuntenable and bordering on farce\u201d.<\/p>\n

-This article is based on a document in the file labelled 2025\/127\/106 in the National Archives of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were concerns that Stakeknife \u2013 the British Army\u2019s top spy in the Provisional IRA\u2019s internal security unit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-257820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115807924052870916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}