THE PSNI HAS deferred its planned statement on the former IRA spy codenamed “Stakeknife” until Friday.
The service’s Chief Constable George Hamilton said that the deferral was designed to avoid a clash with the release of a statement tomorrow on the Loughinisland, County Down massacre, in which six people were killed while watching Ireland play in the 1994 World Cup.
“The Northern Ireland Policing Board is our formal accountability structure and it normally meets on the first Thursday of the month.
“In line with our commitment to openness and transparency, we had made long-standing arrangements to brief members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board at the June Policing Board meeting and to subsequently publicly share, details surrounding the investigation team that will be conducting an investigation into the alleged the activities of the person known as ‘Stakeknife’.
When these arrangements were made we were unaware that the date of the Northern Ireland Policing Board meeting had also been selected by the Office of the Police Ombudsman to release the Loughinisland report.
The PSNI was directed last October to open investigations into Freddie Scappaticci, alleging possible links to at least 24 murders. Known as Stakeknife, he was outed as a British spy in the 1990s by the BBC but has consistently denied the claim.
Hamilton added that the scope of all of the investigations meant care needed to be given to each.
“There are multiple victims and families of victims affected by each of these investigations and it is important that they are afforded the same opportunities to articulate views and to have their voices heard.
As a mark of respect for all those affected by these investigations we are deferring the public announcement of the investigation into the alleged activities of the person known as ‘Stakeknife’ until 10 Friday June.
“We recognise the impact of these investigations and we hope that the outworkings and findings of investigations support victims as Northern Ireland works through its troubled past.”
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