British agent Stakeknife not involved in Caroline Moreland murder, Operation Kenova confirms

An investigation team established to probe the activities of British agent Stakeknife has confirmed he was not involved in the murder of IRA informer Caroline Moreland more than 30 years ago.

The body of Ms Moreland (34) was found near Roslea, Co Fermanagh, in July 1994 – just weeks before the IRA’s historic ceasefire in August that year.

She had been shot three times in the head and her body dumped on a roadside close to the border.

A new book by veteran journalist Martin Dillon now claims the mother-of-three was having an affair with a senior republican who was also working for British intelligence at the time of her death.

Mr Dillon said that while the man cannot be named for legal reasons “he had the motivation to kill Caroline if she had learned during their secret love affair that he was a double agent”.

In the book ‘The Sorrow and the Loss – The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women’, Mr Dillon has also suggested Stakeknife was a “British intelligence project” rather than a single individual.

In 2003 west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, a former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), was identified as the agent known as Stakeknife.

The ISU, also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’, was responsible for hunting down and killing informers.

While it was previously known Scappaticci worked for the British army’s Force Research Unit (FRU), documents suppressed by MI5 until recently confirm he was instructed by the agency via his military handlers.

It is believed Scappaticci’s involvement with the ISU ended around 1990.

Caroline Moreland was abducted and killed by the IRA unit four years later.

Her case was considered by Operation Kenova, which set up in 2016 to investigate the activities of Stakeknife, and produced an interim report last year.

However, it has never been fully explained why the Moreland’s murder was included in Kenova’s caseload.

The investigation, which was formerly headed by current PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher, has now said Stakeknife was not involved in Ms Moreland’s murder.

A spokesman for the probe, which is now led by former Police Scotland chief Sir Iain Livingstone, said “several murders were taken on by Kenova during the course of its investigation.

“Some of these were initially reviewed due to reports or allegations that Stakeknife was involved,” he said.

“In the case of Caroline Moreland there was no evidence that this was the case, but CC (Chief Constable) Jon Boutcher agreed to take on the investigation after meeting with the family and a file was subsequently passed to PPS.

“This was not considered as an Operation Kenova file due to the absence of a link to StakeKnife.”

Other murder investigations passed to Kenova include Joe Mulhern in 1993, John Bingham in 1986 and Tom Oliver in Co Louth in 1991.

The Kenova spokesman also said Stakeknife is a single person rather than a ‘project’.

“The interim report makes clear that we established the identity of Stakeknife and he was an individual, however we cannot currently name due to the government’s neither confirm nor deny policy (NCND),” the spokesman said.

“There is a recommendation in the interim report for the blanket use of NCND to be reviewed – particularly in regard to this case when there is evidence that the individual committed serious criminality including murder.”