There was “deplorable collusion” between loyalist terrorists and some serving police officers and members of the military which led to “vicious sectarian murders and attacks in the 1970s on members of the Catholic community” in both the north and the Republic, a review by the police investigation known as Operation Kenova has found.
The probe also said that Britain’s security services allowed their agent inside the IRA, known as Stakeknife, to carry out murders and then impeded a police investigation into the affair. The Kenova report called for Stakeknife to be named by the authorities, quoting a solicitor as saying: “The dogs in the street know that Fred Scappaticci is the agent Stakeknife”.
Army intelligence (FRU) and the police (RUC) had tried to cover up the truth about Stakeknife, the report said, dismissing MI5’s previous had claimed its role was ‘peripheral’. Stakeknife was taken on holiday by his handlers when the RUC was looking to question him for conspiracy to murder and kidnapping, and he was very well rewarded financially.
In addition, Kenova’s review also said the UVF was responsible for the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and that the investigation had found no evidence of collusion in that regard.
GLENNANE
While one series of murders and attacks being examined became known as the work of the “Glenanne Gang” because early offences believed to be carried out by a group operating from a farmhouse in Co Armagh, the review of same by the Kenova team – named Operation Denton – found that the total number of shootings and bombings was committed by a much broader group, leading to the use of the shorthand, the “Glenanne series” covering some 120 shootings and bombings.
“These were vicious sectarian murders and attacks in the 1970s on members of the Catholic community in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, a number of which involved deplorable collusion with loyalist terrorists on the part of some serving police officers and members of the military,” the report said.
The report looked at “the horrific activities of a broader network of paramilitary groups, primarily the wider UVF and Mid Ulster UVF acting with corrupt members of the security forces, including the RUC and UDR”.
“There is no doubt that collusion took place, much of it long established publicly before Denton was initiated, and our findings showed it manifested itself in various corrupt ways and beyond any identifiable distinct group. The extent of involvement in sectarian attacks by some members of the security forces was shocking, but we did not see any evidence that it occurred at a political or strategic level,” it added.
The report noted that “a number of UVF members had prior British military conflict experience and training. Mid Ulster UVF, over time, developed the capability to construct explosive devices and had access to material and component parts.”
It also said that it was “likely that in some parts of the RUC there was a culture of permissiveness and that some higher ranks were aware of, or had suspicions about, criminal and terrorist activities or sympathies of colleagues. However, the review has found no evidence which indicates that the RUC at an organisational level was involved or complicit with the activities of extremists or terrorists.”
STAKEKNIFE
The nine-year Kenova investigation painted a highly critical picture of MI5’s handling of Freddie Scappaticci, an agent operating at the heart of the IRA who an interim report said had cost more lives than he saved.
Former Kenova lead Jon Boutcher called for both the Government and the Republican leadership to apologise to the families of those who lost loved ones suspected of being state agents during the Troubles.
Many of the murders and interrogations where of an appallingly violent nature. One man, Paddy Trainor was lured to a house and abducted in 1981. He was then tortured – with his body left covered in burn marks – before being shot in the back of the head.
The report said that speculation Scappaticci had saved hundreds of lives was wrong; and that it was more likely between high single figures and low double figures.
It added that the role of the British Army unit and RUC special branch in “withholding information from and about their agents” meant that “very serious criminal offences, including murder, were not prevented or investigated when they could and should have been”.
In regard to new information, further MI5 material disclosed two incidents when Stakeknife’s FRU handlers took him out of Northern Ireland for a holiday when they knew he was wanted by the RUC for conspiracy to murder and false imprisonment, the report said. “For these purposes, Stakeknife was flown by military aircraft and given military identification. MI5 was aware of the FRU’s operational activity at the time.”
Freddie Scappaticci was the son of Italian immigrants who joined the Provisional IRA in 1969 before being recruited by the British Army as a spy in mid-1970s, while still rising up the ranks in the IRA’s “nutting squad”, a unit that hunted and killed suspected informers. He died at the age of 77 in 2023.
UNCOVERING THE TRUTH
Operation Kenova chief Sir Iain Livingstone said Kenova has shown that it is possible to find the truth of what happened for many victims and families. “However, this requires an absolute commitment to examining the events thoroughly, dedication to and openness with families and a firm determination to challenge those who seek to oppose the process,” he said.
“Many families whose loved ones were murdered during the Troubles have not, over many years, been given even the most basic and uncontroversial information by the authorities about what happened. There are many reasons for this, including the dangerous operating environment for the police to engage with them at the time. However, as families will testify, and as has been demonstrated repeatedly during Kenova and through previous legacy investigations, there was also a default police and security force culture of withholding information,” the report said.