Kevin Winters

“A public inquiry is the only option to take today’s Kenova work product to the next stage, otherwise it will have been all in vain,” Kevin Winters of Belfast firm KRW LAW LLP will say at a press conference today.

Sir Iain Livingstone today published the 164-page final report from the Operation Kenova investigation into “Stakeknife”, the codename of a British informer in the Provisional IRA’s internal security unit.

It marks the conclusion of a nine-year investigation into Stakeknife’s offending and state handling, which initially began under Jon Boutcher, now chief constable of the PSNI.

Among the report’s recommendations is that the UK government should depart from its “neither confirm nor deny” (NCND) policy to formally name Stakeknife, who has been identified in media reports for decades as Freddie Scappaticci.

Sir Iain said: “Having spent my life in policing and justice, I support NCND and know its value. Although the policy’s definition and use require review, Kenova has no intention to undermine NCND.

“However, NCND must be exercised in a proportionate and necessary manner and should not be an absolute bar to providing truth and justice.

“It cannot be used to protect agents who commit grotesque serious crime, leaving victims and families ignored and their demands for information and answers dismissed.

“As this final report makes clear, we in Kenova believe there is a compelling ethical case for the UK government to derogate from the NCND policy regarding the agent Stakeknife’s identity. It is in the public interest that Stakeknife is named.”

Mr Winters, who acts for relatives of Stakeknife’s victims, said the failure to name him in the report was “insulting to the families who invested so much time and faith in Kenova”.

He added: “At the end of the day, Fred Scappaticci is dead. So his wife. Any residual Article 2 right to life issue is very much moot and redundant. He needs called out now as Stakeknife.”

A judicial review challenge to the UK government’s NCND policy, initiated by the family and next-of-kin of Stakeknife victim Anthony McKiernan, is in its final stages in the High Court, he noted.

He also said the NCND policy undermined victims’ trust and confidence in the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), “which is subject to the very same strictures”.

Judicial review proceedings seeking a public inquiry into the 1994 ISU murder of Caroline Moreland, also linked to Stakeknife, were dismissed earlier this year after the family was advised by the Northern Ireland secretary to await the publication of the Operation Kenova report.

Mr Winters said: “Well, after today I want to say to Hilary Benn that we are back. We’ve waited patiently since earlier this year for this moment to arrive.

“Todays report enables us to go straight back to the High Court to renew our call for a public inquiry into the Stateknife project.

“For the reasons cited today, we simply can’t go to ICRIR because of the national security veto on intelligence.

“A public inquiry is the only option to take today’s Kenova work product to the next stage, otherwise it will have been all in vain.”