Extra time to question ‘Stakeknife’

Officers have been granted more time to question a man alleged to be the army’s highest-ranking agent in the IRA following his arrest earlier this week. Fred Scappaticci was detained on Tuesday (January 30) following an investigation into claims of murder, kidnap and torture. The 72-year-old, reported to be the man codenamed ‘Stakeknife’ during his time as an informant, is being held at an undisclosed location for security reasons. On Wednesday (January 31), detectives were allocated another 36 hours to interview him. Mr Scappaticci is believed to have been the most prominent British agent operating within the Provisional IRA during the 1970s. He has always denied the allegations against him and left Northern Ireland when he was identified by the media in 2003. The investigation, known as ‘Operation Kenova’, is looking into 1,500 lines of enquiry and has processed more than 500,000 pages of information. A spokesperson for Operation Kenova said: “Officers from Operation Kenova have been granted additional time to question a 72-year-old man who was arrested yesterday (Tuesday) in connection with the investigation. “The man was arrested on suspicion of a number of offences. Detectives were today granted a further 36 hours to question him. “He remains in custody at an undisclosed location. No further details of the place of arrest or where he is being held will be released due to security reasons.”