MI5 turned a blind eye to crimes during the Troubles, a state-appointed investigator says.
British security forces knowingly failed to prevent several murders of UK citizens in order to protect an informant in an armed resistance group active in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a high-profile report published on Friday said.
The interim report on Operation Kenova – an independent investigation into the activities of an alleged government agent known as ‘Stakeknife’ – was presented by the probe’s former head, Jon Boutcher. Launched in 2016, the inquiry specifically dealt with the agent’s alleged involvement in the kidnappings, torture, and murders committed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Boutcher, who left the investigation in 2023 to become the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said he published the preliminary report due to the slow progress of the prosecution linked to the investigation. He slammed MI5 – Britain’s domestic counterintelligence agency – for what he called attempts “to undermine me and the investigation.”
Boutcher’s report said that he had to repeatedly raise “concerns regarding access to information” from MI5 and argued that “its strategy was one of delay.”
According to the document, lawyers representing former security force personnel linked to the cases were granted much greater access to MI5 materials.
MI5 effectively prevented Operation Kenova from submitting evidence against the chief suspect, identified as Freddie Scappaticci, who was widely presumed to be Stakeknife, and other security personnel to prosecutors in October 2019, the report said.
“MI5 informed us that the building’s security accreditation had expired and we therefore could not proceed,” the report stated, adding that the relevant documents were not submitted until February 2020.
The probe examined a total of 101 murders associated with the IRA’s ‘Nutting Squad’ – the group’s internal security unit responsible for interrogating those suspected of cooperating with the state security services. Stakeknife was a leading figure in the unit and was allegedly personally linked to at least 14 murders and 15 abductions, The Guardian reported, citing sources close to the investigation.
The report dismissed claims that Stakeknife saved hundreds of lives through his cooperation with the authorities, calling them implausible and “rooted in fables.” Boutcher told a press conference on Friday that “more lives [were] lost than saved” as a result of his activities.
Boutcher said, citing the report’s findings, that British security services allowed murders to take place to protect the identity of its informants within the IRA. He also said that a “maverick culture” was created around the handling of agents, which was practiced “off the books.”
“Murders that should and could have been prevented were allowed to take place,” the police chief said. “State agents do need to be protected through anonymity and secrecy, but that protection cannot confer de facto immunity or a right to act with impunity as that would be wholly incompatible with the rule of law and human rights,” he added.
Kevin Winters, a lawyer representing 12 families of murder victims linked to the Operation Kenova investigation, accused the authorities of de facto conspiring with terrorists to murder British nationals for their own gains.
“We are left with the horrendous conclusion and takeaway message that both the state and the IRA were co-conspirators in the murder of some of its citizens,” he told journalists, as cited by The Guardian.
The paper did not officially reveal the agent’s identity. Neither did Boutcher, who cited the government’s confidentiality policy. Nevertheless, he said, “we found strong evidence of very serious criminality on the part of Mr Scappaticci and his prosecution would have been in the interests of victims, families and justice.”
Scappaticci denied he was Stakeknife. He died aged 77 in April 2023 without facing any charges.
The UK government said it would not comment on the report since its findings were described as interim.
And it was based on the power play between Catholics and Protestants.
Suggested years ago in implementing a property swap between Irish Catholics living in the UK proper, and English Protestants swapping their Irish property and homes to allow for Catholic to go home to Catholic Ireland, and the Catholics in the U.K. being recipients of the vacated Protestant properties.
Then, Northern Ireland could be abolished and absorbed into Ireland proper.
Any new ‘Troubles’ would be headed-off. And Free Trade implemented.
The UK was catholic for centuries before HenryVIII. Most UK’s catholics were then coerced into becoming protestants.
That is what religion is for governments. A mean to control masses
BTW- had Germany invaded the UK from the east, it was secretly agreed that Ireland would invade the UK from the west.
A pincher movement, and a war on two fronts.
THAT is history that never happened, but was PLANNED!