Britain’s most important and controversial spy within the IRA once described how he murdered a man by shooting him in the back of the head, according to newly unearthed court papers.
Freddie Scappaticci, better known by his codename Stakeknife, headed the ‘nutting squad’ – the IRA’s notorious internal security unit charged with rooting out suspected informers – at the same time as passing secrets to the security services.
Scappaticci, who died in April aged 77, denied being Stakeknife but it is now generally accepted that he was. While he has been linked to the kidnap, murder and torture of as many as 50 people, documentary evidence of his crimes has not been forthcoming.
Now, a new BBC documentary has uncovered a witness statement from a man who was kidnapped and taken to a house in Belfast in which he claims to have heard Scappaticci boasting of a previous murder.
Sandy Lynch, a suspected informer, told how he was stripped and tied to a chair as Scappaticci stood behind him and described how he would be tortured and murdered.
Freddie Scappaticci, better known by his codename Stakeknife, headed the ‘nutting squad’ – the IRA’s notorious internal security unit
Scappaticci walking behind Gerry Adams (right) at the 1988 funeral of IRA man Brendan Davidson
‘He said that I would wake up hung upside down in a cowshed and he would talk to me the way that he wanted to talk to me, that he would skin me alive and that no one would hear me squealing,’ Mr Lynch said in his statement revealed to The Spy Who Got Away With Murder, a BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight investigation.
‘He tapped me two or three times on the back of my head and said: ”You’ll get it right there . . . like that b*****d Fenton.” He said that he had done it.’
Joe Fenton was an estate agent in Belfast who was killed in 1989 after being savagely interrogated by the IRA over his work as a police informer.
His murder took place in the same house where Mr Lynch was interrogated before being rescued when police raided the property.
He later gave evidence against his abductors in court before going into the witness protection scheme.
Scappaticci’s fingerprint was found in the house and he was arrested but never charged with an offence. Mr Fenton’s killers have never been prosecuted.
The alleged activities of Stakeknife and the role of security services including MI5 are currently under investigation in Operation Kenova led by former Bedfordshire chief constable, Jon Boutcher.
Born in the Markets area of West Belfast, the son of Italian immigrants, Scappaticci began working as a bricklayer, but in 1971 aged 25, he was interned without trial, along with many of the next generation of Republicans including Gerry Adams.
Scappaticci, who died in April aged 77, denied being Stakeknife but it is now generally accepted that he was
A new BBC documentary has uncovered a witness statement from a man who was kidnapped and taken to a house in Belfast in which he claims to have heard Scappaticci (pictured) boasting of a previous murder
When he was released in 1974 he was a volunteer in the Provisionals and by 1980 he had joined the Nutting Squad.
His first involvement with British Intelligence is believed to have been in 1978, when he is said to have volunteered to become an informer after being assaulted in an argument with a senior IRA comrade.
His first contact was with the RUC’s Special Branch, but when the British later formed the shadowy Force Research unit to co-ordinate Army intelligence, Stakeknife became their best asset.
Stakeknife is said to have provided a goldmine of intelligence to the British, including allowing them to identify IRA members involved in the kidnapping of wealthy Irish supermarket magnate Ben Dunne in 1981, as well as those who tried to abduct Canadian business tycoon Galen Weston in 1983.
One of Scappaticci’s most notable claims was that former Sinn Fein leader and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness was involved in the death of Frank Hegarty, an IRA man killed by them in 1986 as an informer after they blamed him for the discovery of a huge Libyan arms cache by the Gardai.
According to other sources, Hegarty himself was an FRU agent, and Scappaticci was involved in his torture and murder, to protect his own skin.
Scappaticci is alleged to have worked closely with his FRU handlers in the 1980s and 1990s to protect and promote his own position within the IRA, with accusations that the FRU even killed individuals who might have exposed Scappaticci as an informer.
Spotlight: The Spy Who Got Away With Murder is available now on BBC iPlayer.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk