Head of 'Stakeknife' inquiry says major prosecutions unlikely

Leader of investigation into IRA spy expects criminal cases to be very much the exception'

A multimillion-pound inquiry into one of the biggest spy scandals in British espionage history is unlikely to result in any major prosecutions against a state agent operating at the heart of the IRA or his handlers.

Jon Boutcher, the head of Operation Kenova and the former chief constable of Bedfordshire, has admitted that prosecutions are to be very much the exception" following his report into the Stakeknife controversy - the one-time head of the IRA's internal security unit who was working as a double agent for British intelligence.