MI5’s ‘drip feed’ of deception

The brother of a man shot dead on the orders of a British double agent says he has lost faith in the British state after it was reported that MI5 failed to disclose hundreds of pages of information on the agent.

Fran Mulhern spoke out after it was reported that MI5 failed to hand over hundreds of pages including “significant new information”.

His brother Joseph Mulhern was abducted and killed on the orders of the Provisional IRA’s internal security unit in 1993. The unit had been infiltrated by British army agent Freddie Scappaticci (pictured), who claimed that Joseph was an informer.

His father Frank later said he was given an account of his son’s death by Scappaticci himself.

In 2016 Operation Kenova was set up to supposedly investigate the activities of the notorious agent known by the codename ‘Steak-Knife’ and subsequently ‘Stakeknife’.

Scappaticci worked for the Force Research Unit, a unit of the British Army behind Britain’s ‘dirty war’ of guerrilla warfare, collusion murders and other covert operations. He has been personally linked to at least 14 killings.

In March this year police investigation published an ‘interim report’ with a final document now not expected to be released until next year.

Of the 35 individuals it identified as being involved in ‘Stakeknife’, none would be prosecuted. After a supposed seven years of investigation and over £40 million pounds spent, the report failed to identify the British Army handlers behind the series of killings - and absurdly failed to even identify Scappaticci himself, even after his death of natural causes last year, due to its adoption of MI5’s policy to ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) any incriminating information.

Despite being hyped by the unionist media establishment, few nationalists believed the internal investigation by the Crown Forces was anything other than a delaying tactic ahead of the introduction of overarching cover-up legislation.

The outcome became Britain’s biggest ever cover-up, and its head, Jon Boutcher, was rewarded with promotion to the role of PSNI chief.

Now it has emerged that hundreds of pages of information were not even provided to the investigation team before the interim document was made public.

Mr Mulhern said the revelations have crushed his confidence further.

“I think I’ve lost faith completely in the Security Services and the state when it comes to disclosure, and the court case dad started before he died is moving disgracefully slowly with no end in sight either,” he said.

His lawyer, Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, said the latest revelations “won’t come as any real shock” to the 20 Operation Kenova families he represents.

“After all these years they are well conditioned to a drip feed exposure of state cover up of which this is the latest example,” he said.

“It chimes with the recent obstructive interventionist stance taken in the judicial review cases of Sean Brown and Paul Thompson.”

SDLP Policing Board member Mark H Durkan described the development as “shocking”.

The failure of Mi5 to provide full disclosure “is a further affront to truth and justice but most of all to victims, survivors and families who have shown such fortitude,” he said,

“My thoughts are with them as they suffer a further blow which will no doubt compound their hurt and frustration.”

Sinn Féin MP John Finucane described the revelations as “disgraceful and unsurprising”.

“As the British government’s shameful Legacy Act was enacted to close down families’ access to the civil and criminal courts, British intelligence services have delayed the release of information to families who have waited for the truth for decades,” he said.

“This revelation will add to the trauma and the anguish of families of the victims, and I am calling on the investigation to process the new information as thoroughly and as quickly as possible.”

Urgent Appeal