Freddie Scappaticci has died in England
The 77-year-old died earlier this month in England and was secretly buried.
‘Scap’ had been the British Army’s most prized asset inside the top ranks of the Provos for more than two decades.
He was deputy head of the IRA’s ‘Nutting Squad’ which hunted down informants within its ranks.
The top tout was outed by The Sunday People newspaper in 2003 as the British Army agent ‘Stakeknife’.
But ‘Scap’ denied the claims, even holding a ludicrous press conference in a solicitor’s office in Belfast to read out a pre-prepared statement saying he was not ‘Stakeknife’.
The statement didn’t quell disquiet inside the IRA ranks and he quickly left his Riverdale Park home in the Andersonstown area of west Belfast with the help of MI5 who relocated him to England under a new identity.
In 2010, he was admitted to hospital in England after suffering a heart attack.
‘Scap’ was at the centre of the ‘Operation Kenova’ investigation into IRA murders by the ‘Nutting Squad’ and alleged security force collusion into Provo executions of informants.
Most of the agents the ‘Nutting Squad’ killed were working for RUC Special Branch while Provo informants working for the British Army’s agent-handling Force Research Unit were kept in place.
