08-05-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Operation Kenova: Families of Stakeknife victims to receive reports following security vetting delays
Reports outlining evidence uncovered by Operation Kenova will be delivered to families of victims in the coming weeks, the Policing Board has been told following months of delays by the UK Government.
Operation Kenova focused on the activities of the British Army agent inside the IRA known as Stakeknife, west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who died 2023.
Families of some victims were promised that they would be provided with bespoke reports outlining the evidence in the relevant cases that the probe uncovered.
Head of Operation Kenova, Sir Iain Livingstone, previously expressed his frustration over delays in security vetting of the documents before their release.
Sir Iain told a Policing Board meeting on Thursday that he received a letter from the Cabinet Office on behalf of the Government saying they were 'now satisfied' with the family reports.
'They are now complete and have been subject to security checking and in the next number of weeks families should receive those reports,' he said.
'I should reiterate that members of the team have met personally with families and verbally shared some details.'
Sir Iain said 26 family reports will now be delivered to families.
News Catch Up - Thursday 8 May
They were passed to UK Government between August and October last year to go through security checking which was delayed until after a decision had been made on whether to lift restrictions on naming Stakeknife – a recommendation of the Kenova Interim Report.
Operation Kenova investigated more than 50 murders committed during the Troubles and published an interim report in March last year which concluded that Stakeknife probably cost more lives than he saved.
Currently Stakeknife's identity is protected by the Government's 'neither confirm nor deny' policy which is applied to protect sensitive information including the identity of agents.
Members of the Kenova team previously met with Government to discuss the possibility of proceeding with family reports without revealing Stakeknife's identity.
