24.5.04

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IRA informer is revealed, claims agent
24/05/2004 - 16:00:07

The identity of another top-ranking IRA man who worked for British intelligence in Northern Ireland has been revealed, it was claimed today.

He is a Belfast man who once sat on the Provisionals command in the city, it is alleged

He was named to senior detectives from Metropolitan Commissioner John Stevens’ team investigating collusion between loyalist paramilitaries, police Special Branch and MI5.

Self-confessed IRA double-agent Kevin Fulton says he identified the man to officers during a 35-minute meeting in central London today.

Later he claimed: “He organised a safe house where I was interrogated after a planned IRA hit went wrong”.

Fulton was interviewed as part of the Stevens team’s probe into his allegation that the man named as top British spy codenamed Stakeknife threatened him.

He claims west Belfast builder Freddie Scappaticci, aged 58, interrogated him following a failed IRA ambush on a detective in east Belfast 10 years ago.

Scappaticci has categorically denied widespread accusations he is Stakeknife, an agent working for British military intelligence while a member of the IRA’s so-called internal security squad.

Detectives asked for the details of any others who were present and could corroborate the alleged interrogation, Fulton said.

“I have given them the name of a senior IRA informer who was there,” he added.

“He was an intelligence officer on the Provos’ GHQ staff in Belfast who set this up, but he is also a special branch and MI5 informant.”

Police arrested a number of terrorists who had been planning to ambush Chief Superintendent Derek Martindale in 1994.

Fulton claimed he and another member of his family were interrogated by Scappaticci amid allegations police had been tipped off in advance of the planned IRA attack.

Stevens has already interviewed Stakeknife about his role in Northern Ireland’s dirty war.

In a report published last year the Scotland Yard chief found members of the British army and Royal Ulster Constabulary colluded with the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association.

Up to 20 British army and police personnel could face criminal charges arising out of the report which centred on the murder of Catholic solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989 and Protestant student Adam Lambert in 1987.

Although a major report by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory recommended a public inquiry into the Finucane killing, the British government has yet to confirm it will set up a tribunal.


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