{"id":627490,"date":"2025-12-12T02:50:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/627490\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:50:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:50:23","slug":"mi5-has-blind-spot-over-northern-ireland-troubles-psni-chief-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/627490\/","title":{"rendered":"MI5 has \u2018blind spot\u2019 over Northern Ireland Troubles, PSNI chief says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

MI5<\/a> has a \u201cblind spot\u201d when it comes to dealing with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles, the Police Service of Northern Ireland<\/a> (PSNI) Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has said.<\/p>\n

The Chief Constable faced a call at the Policing Board for \u201croot-and-branch\u201d review of his force\u2019s relationship with MI5 following the publication of the Operation Kenova report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report looked at the actions of Stakeknife, the army\u2019s top spy in the Provisional IRA\u2019s internal security unit during the Troubles.<\/p>\n

The agent has been linked to at least 14 murders and 15 abductions.<\/p>\n

He was widely believed to be west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who was 77 when he died in 2023.<\/p>\n

The report said MI5\u2019s initial failure to disclose all it knew about Stakeknife to Kenova investigators was a \u201csignificant failure\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also said that MI5 had \u201cearlier and greater knowledge\u201d of Stakeknife than it had at first stated.<\/p>\n

SDLP Policing Board member Colin McGrath said the report showed MI5 had known about Stakeknife\u2019s crimes and \u201cdid nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cDoes it not all confirm that there needs to be a root-and-branch review of MI5\u2019s actions and conduct here, including the current PSNI and MI5 MOU (memorandum of understanding)?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe report concluded that \u201ctime and time again”, it would appear that protecting the agent Stakeknife, widely understood to be Freddie Scappaticci, outweighed protecting the life of a victim. Photograph: PA Wire <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018No evidence\u2019 of British collusion with loyalists over Dublin and Monaghan bombingsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher said MI5 is a \u201cremarkable organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think this is about cultural issues. MI5 are doing so much work to keep society safe and I know they are driven by values and ethics. But in Northern Ireland there is what I describe as a blind spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is to do with the fact that on one side of the Troubles were the security forces, who, by the way, invariably in my experiences on Kenova acted outstandingly and we should never forget the sacrifice the security forces made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he said, things that were wrong \u201cshould not be covered up\u201d.<\/p>\n

In \u201cany well-functioning democracy\u201d these issues would surface to ensure learnings, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher said he believes the security forces are on a \u201cjourney around how we deal with legacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the (Kenova) report needs to be digested by various organisations, including (the UK) government. I am involved in conversations to try and change how some of these approaches are taken,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Kenova report called for the UK government to publicly reveal the identity of Stakeknife.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has said he will respond to this at the conclusion of an ongoing case in the Supreme Court which, he said, has implications for the policy of \u201cneither confirm nor deny\u201d with agents.<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher told the board he was an advocate of the policy as it is \u201cvital to protect lives, to protect methodology\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cIt should be applied intelligently and proportionately, and it should never be applied where it is done so to hide wrongdoing.\u201d \u2014PA<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Protecting Stakeknife seemed to \u2018outweigh\u2019 protecting life of a victim, Kenova report findsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MI5 has a \u201cblind spot\u201d when it comes to dealing with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[18872,1144,75955,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-627490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-mi5","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115704328519790447","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}