23-04-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Restriction on naming Stakeknife ‘bizarre', agrees Chief Constable as he calls for greater transparency
Jon Boutcher gave evidence today to the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee's hearing on 'The Government's new approach to addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland', where he repeatedly accused authorities of being too reticent to disclose information to legacy inquiries.
The top PSNI officer agreed with the DUP leader Gavin Robinson's suggestion that 'it is bizarre that we're having a discussion about naming' the British Army's top agent inside the Provisional IRA during the Troubles, known to be the now-deceased former head of IRA internal security, Freddie Scappaticci.
Mr Boutcher also warned that 'the lack of information being provided' on legacy cases 'creates conspiracy theories'.
'It's becoming pantomime and affecting the credibility of us as the security forces,' he said.
'I would hope the Secretary of State will see that. But he will be receiving arguments from lawyers saying: you can't name him, because that will have a chilling effect. I would argue strongly that it will not.
'Sometimes, you lose the right to have that sort of voice when you have failed to manage informants and agents properly, when they have behaved in the way they have behaved, which we set out in the Kenova report.
'There has to be a line around national. But we have prevented even uncontroversial information coming out.
'If [naming Stakeknife] doesn't happen, then I think that is the sounding of a bell to legacy not succeeding moving forward.'
Mr Boutcher headed up Operation Kenova, which linked the spy to at least 14 murders and 15 abductions.
However, when the interim report was published in March 2014, it did not confirm Stakeknife's identity, which is known to the PSNI chief.
'I cannot make his name public without official authority,' Mr Boutcher said at that time.
'So far, the Government has refused to give such authority.'
Baroness Nuala O'Loan, the former Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, also gave evidence to the hearing and agreed that it was time to name Stakeknife.
The UK peer argued that the state's failure to provide information was having a negative impact on legacy inquest and used the example of murdered GAA club chairman Sean Brown's family, who 'have been back in court something like 58 times trying to get information'.
'That is a scandal,' she said.
Baroness O'Loan also called on the Labour Government to find a new approach to legacy issues, saying that the low number of cases brought to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) 'is indicative of the fact that people don't trust it'.
She said it should set aside a specific budget to deal with legacy issues, 'in particular to ringfence a separate legal legacy budget to cover all aspects of providing a criminal justice system to deal with the past'.
'The reality is our criminal justice system is quite profoundly broken. Rape cases are being listed for 2028 and 2029,' Baroness O'Loan continued.
'For victims, the horror of that situation. For those who are accused and are innocent, unless and until they are found guilty, that is also a terrible situation.'
