Refusal to confirm identity of Stakeknife reflects British state’s addiction to secrecy

Security forces and government still refuse to clarify allegations that Freddie Scappaticci was British spy at the heart of the IRA

It is both darkly telling and extraordinarily dispiriting that even now, after a 40m investigation, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher cannot formally say in his interim report that Stakeknife, the British spy at the heart of the IRA, was Freddy Scappaticci, despite the fact that he died last year in England, aged 77.

The security forces and the government have steadfastly refused to confirm or deny the allegations that Mr Scappaticci was an agent or that he was Stakeknife," the police officer writes of the man, who operated inside the IRA's so-called Nutting Squad, which sought to root out and kill alleged informers.