'Stakeknife' whereabouts unknown

The whereabouts of alleged IRA informer 'Stakeknife' were unknown today despite reports that he had not, in fact, left Belfast as first thought.

The alleged British Army agent, named locally as Freddie Scappaticci, was believed to have left the country last Friday after security forces told him that his personal security had been compromised.

However, by Monday afternoon Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly said that Scappaticci's family had told his party he was not in custody and had not left Belfast.

Scappaticci, better known as Stakeknife, is alleged to have been involved in numerous murders throughout Northern Ireland's troubles despite working for the British Army's Force Research Unit which had infiltrated the republican group's organisation.

The agent is believed to have been close to the top of the IRA in Belfast for several decades.

On Sunday his identity was revealed in a number of local and national newspapers, thus compromising his position within the republican movement.

Sir John Stevens, who is heading the enquiry into collusion between paramilitaries and security forces, was expected to meet Scappaticci over the next few days to discuss a numerous sectarian murders over the years.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said he was unsurprised by the news. Speaking on BBC NI on Sunday, the Upper Bann MP said: "We all know that the authorities try to penetrate the paramilitary organisations.

"It is the key way in which the paramilitaries have been ground down and brought close to defeat in Northern Ireland."

DUP MLA and Northern Ireland Police Board Member Sammy Wilson, however, was at pains to blame the Stevens enquiry team for exposing Stakeknife and possibly ruining any chance of bringing various republican terrorists to justice.

He said: "The exposure of the security forces spy at the very heart of the IRA is yet another consequence of the destructive meddling in security matters by the Stevens team.

"A worrying consequence of the Stevens Inquiry is the way in which it has resulted in blowing the cover of so many agents within terrorist organisations.

"The future for intelligence gathering is bleak if the books of the security services can be opened like the pages of a newspaper. Further inquiries such as Stevens suit the terrorists because they know it makes the recruiting of informers harder if not impossible. That is why action must be taken now.”

Meanwhile, the House of Commons is set to debate the Stevens report into collusion.

The Speaker in the House of Commons acceded to a request to debate the implications of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.

The news followed representations by Labour MP Kevin Mc Namara - a 90-minute debate has been scheduled at short notice for Wednesday.

In a letter to Secretary of State Paul Murphy, the Labour backbencher and former Labour party spokesman on Northern Ireland said: "His [Stevens] findings form the most damning indictment of the security services and, by implication, Government practice I can recall."

The Stevens Report revealed collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitary groups in the murder of Pat Finucane and others.

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