From SNP finances to IRA man and agent Stakeknife

Jon Boutcher became the new chief constable of PSNI, moving from Operation Kenova, a long-running investigation into Stakeknife, a very senior figure in the IRA's internal security unit who was recruited as an agent for the British Army's shadowy Force Research Unit in the late 1970s.

Kenova had been set up in 2015 to get answers for the families of Stakeknife's victims many of whom were abducted, stripped naked, tortured, and forced to confess to being an informer for the army, police or MI5 before being shot in the head, their bodies discarded on roadsides and street corners. Some of the men and women were informants, others were not.

READ MORE: Iain Livingstone calls on football fans not to ignite sectarianism

When the dramatic circumstances surrounding Mr Byrne, led to Mr Boutcher, a retired chief constable of Bedfordshire Police and counter terrorism expert, becoming chief constable of the PSNI, Sir Iain, abandoned his retirement plans to lead Operation Kenova.

The former Police Scotland chief had worked closely with Mr Boutcher since 2015 as a member of Kenova's reference group of international criminal justice experts, who supported the politically sensitive inquiry.

Alfredo "Freddie" Scappaticci (extreme left of picture/side faced) pictured at the 1988 funeral of IRA man Brendan Davison. Gerry Adams is pictured carrying the coffin. Photo: Pacemaker Press.  

On holiday with his wife in Italy in early October last year, just weeks of so after stepping down from Police Scotland after six years in the top job and 31 years as police officer, Sir Iain took a call from Mr Boutcher.

"Jon Boutcher was being strongly encouraged, and rightly, by the policing board, by the Northern Ireland Office, by a lot of community and victims groups and politicians in Northern Ireland to apply for the chief constable's position," said Sir Iain in his first major newspaper interview since taking up the Kenova role.

"Jon was so committed to Kenova, to getting the truth for victims and their families that he wouldn't leave Kenova to go to the chief's position unless he felt that someone was going to come in, that [the operation] would maintain it's independence , and that someone would come in who had the knowledge and experience and a similar background to himself.

Officer in charge Operation Kenova, Sir Iain Livingstone, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Chris Todd, and former victims commissioner Judith Thompson at Stormont Hotel in Belfast for the publication of the Operation Kenova Interim Report into Stakeknife, the British Army's top agent inside the IRA in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Picture date: Friday March 8, 2024. PA Photo. Kenova has probed the activities of the agent Stakeknife within the Provisional IRA. Stakeknife was part of the terror group's internal security unit and Kenova examined crimes such as murder and torture, and the role played by the security services, including MI5. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire.

"So he phoned me....Bluntly it was not part of my original retirement plan, but I did feel it was the right thing to do." 

Sir Iain's period as chief constable of Police Scotland put him in charge of some of the UK's most critical police investigations.

In addition to taking over the job at a time of upheaval for the new Scotland wide force following the relatively short tenures of Stephen House and Phil Gormley, his period at the helm saw him in charge of the policing response to Covid, and the policing operations around COP26 and the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Most notably, perhaps, were the politically sensitive operations. He oversaw inquiries into sexual assault complaints against former first minister Alex Salmond. Mr Salmond was cleared of all charges after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2020.

And a year later, in July 2021, Police Scotland force launched Operation Branchform, the inquiry into SNP finances while Mr Salmond's successor Nicola Sturgeon was party leader. Branchform is still ongoing under Sir Iain's successor as chief constable Jo Farrell.

Kenova has unearthed long standing crimes and secrets many didn't want to come out. It has required Sir Iain to have enhanced security arrangements every time he sets foot in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this month the inquiry published its interim report on Stakeknife - first named by writer Neil Mackay in this newspaper back in 2003 as Freddie Scappaticci - and the failures of the intelligence and security services in their handling of him.

The Kenova report - which did not identify Stakeknife, who died last year aged 77 - found that it was probable his actions had resulted in more lives being lost than saved, with the number saved "in the high single figures or low double figures".

READ MORE: Scottish spymaster Gordon Kerr was man behind Stakeknife

It also found that the security forces repeatedly withheld and did not action information about threats to life, abductions and murders in order to protect agents from compromise.

Shockingly it revealed there were several cases of murder where the security forces had advance intelligence but did not intervene in order to protect sources.

The original Kenova remit to focus on Stakeknife was later expanded to take on three other inquiries. 

The three further inquiries are the death of Jean Smyth Campbell, a 24 year old mother, who was shot dead while sitting in a car in west Belfast in 1972; the murder of three RUC officers - Sergeant Sean Quinn and Constables Allan McCloy and Paul Hamilton - in County Armagh in October 1982; and the activities of a loyalist terror group known as the Glenanne Gang which operated in south Armagh and who were responsible for some 127 murders during the 1970s.

READ MORE: Operation Branchform: 'We have always acted in interests of justice'

Work on the Glenanne gang may take in the infamous Miami Showband massacre in July 1975. Three members of the popular cabaret band were murdered, lead singer, Fran O’Toole, the guitarist Tony Geraghty and the trumpeter Brian McCoy. Two other band members, Des McAlea and Stephen Travers, were injured but survived.

Two Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers were convicted for their roles in the attack and it has long been suspected that loyalist paramilitaries involved in the killings were being helped by army intelligence and the RUC.

The scene of the Miami Showband Killings on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland, 31st July 1975. The attack was carried out by loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and took place while the group, a popular cabaret band, were travelling home to Dublin after a performance. At 2.30am, their Volkswagen minibus was stopped at a bogus military checkpoint, where gunmen ordered the band members to line up by the roadside. Two of the gunmen were attempting to plant a time bomb on the vehicle, when it prematurely exploded and killed them. In the ensuing confusion the UVF men opened fire on the band, killing three and wounding two. Photo: Getty Images.

"There is no doubt that some of these horrendous sectarian murders carried out by loyalist paramilitaries did involve the active participation of members of the security forces," said Sir Iain.

READ MORE: Northern Ireland provides a warning for Scotland about polarisation

"But what the Glenanne series is looking at is how co-ordinated this was if at all. Was this directed from Whitehall or from London as that's the hypothesis that had been presented by people who believe that in all good faith.

"And we've been asked to consider it to see what associations are there, to see where the connections exist and to report where the connections do exist [or to report if we do not see any connections."

Sir Iain is hoping the final report on Stakeknife, as well as 26 standalone reports for individual families affected by his actions, will be published by the end of December this year.

Political Correspondent Kathleen Nutt interviewing Sir Iain Livingstone.  Photo Gordon Terris.

In the course of its inquiry Kenova submitted 36 files to the prosecuting service in Northern Ireland on the Stakeknife investigation - some about the actions of Stakeknife himself, some the people associated with him and some relating to members of the security services. The cases related to murders, abductions and other crimes of violence yet the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to charge anyone.

I ask if there was disappointment in the inquiry team.

"I think it is fair to say there is frustration within the Kenova team, a frustration I felt coming in to lead in the last year, but also having been involved over the piece," said Sir Iain.

"But our undertaking is still to try and give as much information to the families as we can because many of the victims and families have had very little feedback from agencies of the state."

READ MORE: Operation Branchform casts shadow on SNP election campaign

While some families do not want their cases to go through the courts, there are still many who do.
A controversial piece of legislation brought in by the UK Government has added to a sense of a lack of justice for some families. 

The Northern Ireland Legacy Act was envisaged as a way to allow Northern Ireland "to move on" from the Troubles era by establishing an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, a new body to find answers in cases during the conflict.

But its provision to offer perpetrators a conditional amnesty has led to concerns it has been designed to shield security forces members from prosecution. 

It has been condemned by victims’ groups, all political parties in Northern Ireland, the UN and the Council of Europe in addition to the Irish Government which is currently taking action against the UK Government over the legislation.

Sir Iain declined to give his opinion on the legislation or say if he thought it should be repealed.

"I don't think that is a matter for me to have a view on," he said.

"I was very conscious, as we all were in Kenova, about the controversy surrounding the bill as it was.

"But parliament has now legislated for that. They have appointed Sir Declan Morgan [a senior judge] as the commissioner. I think that is an excellent appointment, and they are now beginning to fill some of the posts within that.

"I am also aware the Irish Government have taken a state action against the UK Government in Strasbourg. There is an ongoing challenge through the High Court in Belfast." 

The Commission is the body that would be expected to take on the work of Kenova once it is wound up but with legal battles ongoing, there is substantial uncertainty about what is going to happen.

"The controversy is still high," he said.

"If the act is not repealed there is potential for it to be amended in some ways. So there is unfortunately that uncertainty at the moment."

One of the recommendations that the interim Kenova report made was that both the UK Government and the republican leadership should apologise.

"It is not a condemnation of numerous people who acted with bravery and courage, who lost their lives and gave commitment, either in the security services or even to act legitimately as agents to support the security services, it was an enormously challenging time," he said.

"But where there have been mistakes made, where there was clear complicity from state agencies and clear understanding that people in senior positions could have and should have done more to prevent people dying, people being murdered, I think a recognition of that and an apology for that is a reasonable ask.

"And actually I think it would be an opportunity to move forward, almost a precursor, to go forward is that level of acknowledgement.

"And in the report we also ask the republican leadership to do similar."

He said who in the UK Government and the republican leadership should deliver the apologies was a matter for the two to decide when I ask whether it should be Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill.

The report highlighted the scale of violence that took place in the Troubles over the 32 years from 1966 to 1998, the ongoing effects of it on many of Northern Ireland's 1.9 million citizens and the huge pressure RUC officers were under.

"The conflict continues to have a profound impact on families and society in Northern Ireland," it said.

"Between 1966 and 2006 there were 3,720 conflict related deaths and 40,000 people were injured. 213,000 people are today experiencing significant mental health problems as a result of the conflict."

It added: "The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) went from policing a society where serious and violent crime was relatively rare to becoming the most dangerous police force in the world in which to serve. During the course of the conflict, 302 RUC officers were killed and over 10,000 injured, with 300 left severely disabled."

Between August 1969 and July 2007, 1,441 armed forces personal died prematurely - 722 killed in terror attacks and 719 as a result of other causes.

Sir Iain said the working on Operation Kenova it was the "brutality" and mundane nature of the violence that he found shocking, the sense that it was an everyday occurrence, where people in one street went about normal business going to work, school, university, enjoying trips to the theatre while horrors were being committed in another street close by.

"The brutality of the violence was almost built into daily life," he said noting the scale of the challenge the then RUC had to contend with.

"It must have been so massively difficult. These brutal attacks and murders and shootings were happening so regularly that in order to respond to them in a way that we would wish, I don't think it was possible. I think the report recognises that. It was just such a devastating time."

He found the intergenerational trauma experienced by Stakeknife's victims especially disturbing.

"In the Stakeknife work because we were looking at the role of informants and alleged informants there was almost the additional trauma that someone could be identified as an informer by the IRA internal security unit.

"They would be taken away, tortured, and sometimes give a tape that would be sent back to their families.

"Some of those individuals were acting for the British state for legitimate reasons, for their own reasons, but some of them weren't.

"And what ever happened, not only would that family lose that individual because they were executed brutally and their body was left on the side of a road.

"In many instances that family was then shunned, ostracised by their own community, and that was inter generational. And I think that sense of intergenerational trauma and harm is something that really hits you when you meet families. There are children, grandchildren who talk as if it is very very fresh because to them it is."

Mr Boutcher in the interim report described the hope that Operation Kenova would be trusted by victims and bereaved families and it would establish the truth.

He wrote: "I set the vision as: “To be trusted by victims and their families. To establish the truth of what happened. To gain the confidence of the communities and stakeholders. To be unwavering in the search for truth with each agency, department, political party, other organisation or individual that/who might seek to prevent the truth from being established.”

For Sir Iain, Operation Kenova has shone a spotlight on aspects of Northern Ireland's Troubles many would have preferred to kept hidden.

And as he concluded our interview he underlined that what happened during the conflict just across the water should always be remembered.

"What happened in the communities in Northern is not something we should never forget," he said.

"I think it is important to remember just the brutality and how so many families were ripped apart. Everybody including people in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom should ensure that everything we do supports the peace process."