Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act Ⅴ

Seamus Kearney 🎤 In 1982 the British army formed the Force Research Unit ( FRU) and terminated the Special Reconnaissance Unit ( SRU).

But Freddie Scappaticci continued his work without hindrance as he was still attached to 39th Brigade and his unit Commander Gordon Kerr, still held overall command.

By this stage Scappaticci had a military serial number - 6126, but he was often simply referred to as '26' within close military circles. His code name was 'Steak knife', but the spelling was later altered by the media, not the military, and changed to 'Stakeknife'.

His serial number was later changed to 9001, but Stakeknife remained his code name. A special bunker was reserved for him, known as the 'Rat hole' in Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn and over the course of his long service with the military, Scapatticci accumulated a total of 18 handlers.

In 1983, as a result of the arrest of Robert Lean in Belfast, an arrest which threatened to wipe out the Belfast Brigade, Freddie Scappaticci fled South across the border and remained there for a number of months. Once Lean retracted his evidence the possibility of a 'Supergrass' trial collapsed and Scapatticci felt he was safe to return to Belfast. It was while he was in the Free State that he was promoted to OC of the Internal Security Unit in 1984, which saw his former OC, a British agent like himself, become his Adjutant.

In September 1983, after the Great Escape from the H Blocks of Long Kesh, it was Freddie Scappaticci and his SBS colleague who interviewed all escapees and quizzed them on their future plans, their whereabouts and their intentions on whether to vacate the country or return to Active Service with the IRA. Subsequently, all relevant information was fed to the Task Co - Ordinating Group ( TCG) and discussed at senior level.

After James Young was arrested by the IRA as a suspected informer, he was handed over to the ISU and held in a house South of Jonesborough, in the Free State. He was interrogated by Scappaticci and his colleague, the former Marine, over the course of 3 days in February 1984. When Scapatticci informed his handler on the location where Young was held, that information quickly went up the chain of command to the TCG and a decision was taken to contact the Gardaí in the South to send a rescue mission. Unfortunately for Young the Gardaí raided the wrong house in the Cul-de-sac and Young was frog marched out the rear door and across nearby fields, while the other Volunteers from the South Armagh IRA walked out the front door and into a waiting car. However, as the car left the scene it was flagged down by the Gardaí and the occupants checked. Before they were waved on a senior Gardaí officer surveyed one of the men and said:'Fancy you being a defence to anybody'.

This comment was an obvious referral to the IRA Court-martial of James Young, and it wasn't lost on the IRA Volunteers in the car, as they correctly linked it to Scappaticci and his colleague, as both men had already left the scene 24 hours earlier.

James Young was duly executed after admitting his guilt on 13th February 1984, five days after his abduction and left on a roadside near Crossmaglen in South Armagh.

The South Armagh IRA clearly identified their informer and had grave reservations about Scappaticci when he questioned James Young about IRA operations in the South Down area, Young 's area of influence, and on the identity of other key IRA personnel, which had nothing to do with Young's arrest.
They later contacted the IRA leadership in Belfast and told them not to send Scapatticci to them again, pointing out that they suspected him of being compromised. Despite their protestations, the South Armagh IRA was ignored and Scappaticci kept in position to wreak further havoc inside the IRA 's command structure.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.