Scappaticci stays away from brother’s funeral
WEST Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who has been exiled from Northern Ireland since claims he was a Special Branch informer, has been forced to miss his brother’s funeral this week.
Michael Scappaticci was buried from his Twinbrook home on Monday at a funeral attended by several hundred family and friends.
While Freddie (64), who left his Riverdale home after being outed as the suspected British agent known as Stakeknife in 2003, placed a death notice in the Irish News for his brother he did not personally attend the funeral.
The funeral took place in St Luke’s church in Twinbrook before going to Roselawn crematorium on the outskirts of east Belfast.
The former IRA man’s immediate family attended the service, he however did not make the journey home.
In previous court cases taken by the British double agent he has claimed that his life is in immediate danger due to the seriousness of the allegations levelled against him.
A notice placed in the Irish News this week stated: “Sadly missed by your brother Freddie, Sheila and your nieces and nephews.”
In 2006 Mr Justice Weir granted Scappaticci an injunction, banning the media from revealing the suspected spy’s current whereabouts.
The High Court gagging order includes his new name, address and employment or any details which may lead to his whereabouts.
It also bans the media from printing any image made or taken of him from May 11 2003 onwards.
Last year a Sunday newspaper was forced to pay out £30,000 in damages and £10,000 in legal cost after flouting the injunction after details of his medical condition were printed.
Before being outed as an alleged double agent Scappaticci had been a member of the IRA for over 25 years, heading up the republican organisation’s internal security unit known as the ‘nutting squad’.
Last year a kidnapping conviction against former Sinn Fein director of publicity Danny Morrison and former IRA hunger striker Gerard Hodgins was quashed on appeal amid allegations that the case had centred on information provided by Scappaticci.
However, the reasons behind the landmark ruling relating to the abduction of IRA informant Alexander ‘Sandy’ Lynch were not revealed.
At the original 1990 trial, Lynch had identified Freddie Scappaticci as the man in charge of his interrogation at a house in Andersonstown.
Despite having had the house under surveillance the RUC failed to arrest Scappaticci, at the time who went on the run in the Republic.
He was questioned when he returned to Northern Ireland in 1992 but released without charge.
In October last year following the quashing of his conviction Mr Morrison said: “I was lured to that house by Freddie Scappaticci because I intended to hold a press conference at which Lynch would admit to being an informer.
“The whole thing was a set-up from the beginning.”
Through his solicitor former brick layer Scappaticci has consistently denied being a British agent.
