Scappaticci legal team at tribunal is extended

THE SMITHWICK Tribunal has increased legal representation allowed to Freddie Scappaticci, the man who denies being “Stakeknife”, a spy for the British army said to have been operating within the IRA.

Mr Scappaticci had already been granted limited legal representation every time he was to be mentioned at the tribunal. He will now be allowed the same representation each time “Stakeknife” is mentioned. Mr Scappaticci’s solicitor, Michael Flanagan, applied to the tribunal for extra representation claiming evidence given to the tribunal could give rise to wrongful allegations concerning him.

These were: that he was the very senior agent known as “Stakeknife” or “Steaknife” working in the IRA on behalf of the British army, that he was the handler of alleged IRA informer Det Sgt Owen Corrigan of Dundalk Garda station, and that he was involved in the murder of Cooley Peninsula farmer Tom Oliver in 1991.

The tribunal is inquiring into suggestions of collusion between members of the Garda or other employees in the State in the murder of two RUC officers. Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were killed in an IRA ambush in south Armagh minutes after they left a meeting at Dundalk Garda station in March 1989.

Yesterday Judge Smithwick said Mr Scappaticci denied all the claims including that he was “Stakeknife” and that he was an IRA handler for Det Sgt Corrigan.

Det Sgt Corrigan has also consistently denied he was an IRA mole in Dundalk station. However, the tribunal was told yesterday by a former RUC officer he had been told “to be careful” about speaking in front of Det Sgt Corrigan.

The RUC witness, who was not identified by name, said he had visited Monaghan Garda station regularly and was given the warning by Supt John McMenamin, who has since died. He said he took the warning to mean he should not discuss security-sensitive operational issues around Det Sgt Corrigan.

He said the late Mr McMenamin had told him the Garda had been formed from former Old IRA activists and was peopled with their descendants. He agreed with counsel for Det Sgt Corrigan this was hearsay and he had not at the time made a formal report of it.

The tribunal also heard from former garda Edmund Sheridan, who was kidnapped by the IRA for six hours after he was stopped by an IRA checkpoint close to the Border. He said such checkpoints were in place along the northern fringe of the Border “every other night or every night” at the time, and the Border was a very dangerous place.

He had been told Mr Buchanan’s habit of dropping in on Border Garda stations “willy-nilly” had caused a lot of anxiety. Mr Buchanan had eventually been asked not to drop in in that way as it put his life and the lives of everyone in the stations involved in danger. Mr Sheridan said he did not believe the allegations against Det Sgt Corrigan.

Former assistant Garda commissioner TJ Ainsworth said he had written a letter of support for Det Sgt Corrigan, when the officer went for promotion in 1982. He believed Mr Corrigan’s intelligence gathering on the IRA had led to many successful operations.