February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The alleged informer, Alfredo “Scap” Scappaticci, was named in the press last weekend after another informer, who’s taking a case against the British government through the courts, identified him on a website.
But although the newspapers claimed that Scappaticci, previously referred to publicly by his code-name “Stakeknife,” had been “spirited away” from his Belfast home by British military intelligence on Friday, he was seen in the area at the weekend and is not believed to have left until Sunday night.
On Monday, members of his family were still claiming he was at home in Belfast “eating his dinner,” although security sources in London insisted he had left the country.
In a statement issued through his lawyer Tuesday in Belfast, Scappaticci denied all the claims and insisted he had never been in contact with the security services.
“He has never been taken into protective custody and has never received any money from the security services,” the statement said.
Sir John Stevens, head of the Metropolitan police in London, who’s conducting an inquiry into allegations of collusion involving British military intelligence, the RUC, and paramilitaries is said to want to interview Scappaticci, who’s in his 50s.
If the claims are true, it means that a senior IRA man, second in command until 10 years ago of its internal security and responsible for vetting new members, was working for the British, who paid him between