In an extended interview with the Andersonstown News, Freddie Scappaticci repeatedly and emphatically denied the allegations linking him to 'Stakeknife', informing on the IRA to British intelligence and involvement in many murders
Mr Fred Scappaticci has offered to meet families of those he is alleged to have murdered to protest his innocence.
Interviewed in the Andersonstown News, the west Belfast man again vociferously denied ever having worked for British intelligence or being paid by them. He also denied republican involvement since 1990 or that he had been second-in-command of the IRA's internal security unit or "nutting squad".
"Things have been dragged out in the press with not one iota of truth," he said. "Never once did anyone come to ask me if there was any truth in it." He claimed he had not stayed at home on the weekend he was first named by some newspapers as he felt he and his family were in danger.
"I had to leave my home for a couple of days for safety's sake and lie low, my family has been tortured by the British media and gutter press, coming to my house banging on door windows, putting letters through the door, wanting to know where I was, wanting to write something derogatory about me and my family," he said.
Mr Scappaticci gave an account of his movements prior to his decision to "lie low" and told how he became aware of the allegations against him.
"I went to Creighton's round the Lisburn Road as I sometimes do. Every paper I looked at was this thing. I said to myself, "Jesus!"
He went on to criticise the authors of reports about him, claiming some were "embittered" and "had their own agenda".
He also explicitly rejected claims made against him.
Asked: During your time with the republican movement were you ever in the employ of any branch of the British intelligence community? He replied "Never". Asked: Have you ever received payment for passing information to any branch of the British intelligence community? He said: "Never". Asked: Have you ever left Ireland at any time to meet with any branch of the British intelligence community? He said: "Never".
He also spoke at length about his desire to return to a normal life with his family. He then offered to meet families of the people he is said to have killed. He said he would stand in front of them and tell them he had no part in the murders.
The following is the text of an interview with Mr Freddie Scappaticci which appeared in yesterday's edition of the Andersonstown News. The interview was conducted by the newspaper's editor, Robin Livingstone:
The following is the text of an interview with Mr Freddie Scappaticci which appeared in yesterday's edition of the Andersonstown News. The interview was conducted by the newspaper's editor, Robin Livingstone:
Q: It has been an unprecedented seven days. How has it all affected you and your family?
A: Well, as a person, a very private person, it's been devastating. Things have been dragged out in the press with not one iota of truth. Never once did anyone come to ask me if there was any truth in it. The Andersonstown News were the only ones willing to ask my side of the story and print the truth. Because I had to leave my home for a couple of days for safety's sake and lie low, my family has been tortured by the British media and gutter press, coming to my house banging on the door, windows, putting letters through the door, wanting to know where I was, wanting to write something derogatory about me and my family. We are a private family, we go to work, look after our family and children and grandchildren. My youngest daughter had actually to sit A levels and it was all so traumatic that teachers had to take her out of school and she had to receive counselling by teachers. Obviously, my daughter especially doesn't know anything about anything. She's a quiet girl, she felt my life was in danger and that made it worse.
Q: Tell us about that Saturday evening. Did you have any inkling whatsoever that you were about to be put in the frame as "Stakeknife"?
A: No inkling whatsoever. I was out doing a job, finishing a job on Saturday. I came home and I had hurt my back. After I had my tea I was with my young grandson and a knock came to the door about half eight at night and the grandson went to answer the door. I was lying on the settee because my back was sore. He came in and said: "Granda there's two men want to see you." So I went out and there's these two men standing at the door. One of them said: "Hello, I'm Greg Harkin." I said to him, "and what?" The name didn't register. I didn't realise till afterwards he wanted me to come out to the front because there must have been a photographer in the hedge because I said to him: "Do you want to come in?"
He said: "No, no, I want you to see this." And that's when I came out into the hall and the photographer took my picture, obviously from the hedge next door. It seems that's the way it was. He says to me: "Have you seen this article?" I said to him: "What article?" He said: "Well, the Sunday Tribune is running an article that says you're a British agent" and I said, "You're joking."
He then showed me this Sunday Tribune article, which was very blurred, in fact you couldn't even read it.
All you could read was the headline, which I can't remember except it said something about £80,000 a year. I said, "£80,000 a year?" I said to him, "are you serious? I'm out breaking my back building concrete blocks and I'm getting £80,000 a year?" I said: "You must be joking."
And it said on it Alfredo Scappaticci and I said: "I'm not Alfredo Scappaticci." He said: "Well, we heard he lives in Dublin." I said: "I don't know any Alfredo Scappaticci lives in Dublin." He says: "Are there any other Alfredo Scappaticcis living in west Belfast?" I said: "No, not as far as I know. Because any living in west Belfast are related to me." And he said: "Well that's being printed tomorrow." I said to him: "Is there nothing I can do about this, like?" And he said: "Well . . ." and then he went away and an hour later he came back. And he said to me: "This is appearing tomorrow morning."
Q: What were your feelings after you were left to reflect on the enormity of what was happening?
A: You see that was the thing, the enormity of the thing didn't hit me because I thought the story was going to appear in the paper, end of story. You know . . . they were going to make these allegations and, well, then I would have got in touch with a solicitor. I went to bed early that night because my back was sore.
My daughter was going out and I said to her: "I'm going to bed, I'm going to take a couple of these painkillers." I got up the next morning as I usually do about half seven and as usual I went round to the front of the road, but because the Sunday papers weren't there yet I went to Creighton's round the Lisburn Road as I sometimes do. Every paper I looked at was this thing. I said to myself, "Jesus!"
Q: So you're standing in Creighton's and you're looking at these papers. Your picture's there. How is Freddie Scappaticci as he reads them?
A: I was physically sick, just sick. And to tell you the truth the first thing that came into my head was, "Jesus, what are my family going to think when they see this?" That was the first thing that entered my head. So I bought a couple of papers anyway, went back to the house. I have a wee hold-all. I put my toothbrush and stuff into the hold-all, got into the car and I went to a friend's.
Q: Was it in Belfast?
A: Yes.
Q: Was it in west Belfast?
A: No. And then I contacted my brother. My brother had by that time read the papers and he asked me what was going on and I told him: "I don't know." He said to me: "Freddie, we're going to have to do something about this." I said, "Right." So he says to me, "Freddie, I'm going to contact a member of Sinn Féin", which he then did. That was about one o'clock on Sunday and he contacted a member of Sinn Féin. The member then contacted me.
I talked about it with my brother who arranged then for me to meet my solicitor, which I did. The meeting would have been the Monday; the meeting was arranged by two friends of the family and my brother. It was done in absolute secrecy in case any press or anything would have been following them.
By that time the press were starting to hound the house. I met with the solicitor. He had a talk with me, he then issued a statement on my behalf, saying that he had met me and so on. I left him a means of contacting me and we stayed in contact.
He then arranged for the press conference on the Wednesday. It went ahead. I said what I had to say about the circumstances of it. I wasn't happy, to be truthful, about going to that press conference in the first place after the hatchet job that they did on me. I had read some of the papers: "I'm in Bedfordshire"; "I'm in Dorsetshire"; "I'm having plastic surgery as they speak to me"; "I'm meeting John Stevens and he's grilling me in Scotland Yard."
Q: The media reports homed in on the fact that you had left your home.
A: My first reaction was to think that if I'm not there the media won't torture my family. That turned out to be wrong. And that was one of the things that I said to Brian Rowan [BBC security correspondent], I said: "I hope my family are going to be left in peace now that I have come out here." And they still haven't been left in peace.
There was a letter put through the door the other day that somebody wanted to speak to me. Let me make this clear - I don't want to speak to the media except the Andersonstown News. The Andersonstown News have decided to give me a fair crack of the whip. But the reason I left my home was to protect my family and to protect my anonymity. Because as I told you, we are private people.
We don't go about doing this that and the other. We are just private people. And the fact that my daughter was doing her A levels, that was in my mind also. And I thought that maybe decency would show through at some stage with the press and that they would leave my family alone. But it didn't.
Q: You said that you were a member of the republican movement up until 1990. What happened, and what were the circumstances of you leaving the republican movement at that time?
A: Well, the Sandy Lynch thing happened. I then went to live in Dublin. It was the fact that my wife wasn't well at the time and because of that and because of the traumatic effect it was having on my children I said, "Right, enough's enough. I have to now start devoting some time to my family." And that's exactly what I did. I came back from Dublin, got work, went on with my life as best I could. Rebuilt my family. That was it.
Q: And yet it has been claimed that throughout the 1990s you were actually directing the IRA's peace process strategy.
A: I was working away, going on with my life. There was a documentary came on with allegations from Éamon Collins. That devastated my family. I sat them down and said that man's saying that to make a few pounds, to make himself look big. That's the kind of man he was.
But after that I tried to get on with my life again. And everything's been going OK for me. I'm working away, I hardly ever go out, I don't drink, I don't socialise in republican circles.
I have read some of the comments that this Anthony McIntyre and other people have come out with. Obviously they have their own agenda, they are embittered people.
To suggest that I was at the heart of the peace process, doing this Machiavellian stuff, that I had the ear of Gerry Adams - the Mr Big, in there for British intelligence, pushing the peace process one way, pushing it another to suit a British agenda. It's so ridiculous that it's just unbelievable.
People that know me know I haven't been involved. The republican movement knows me, knows that I haven't been involved in the peace process.
They know that and they know how ridiculous it all is. In fact, let me tell you something, I was going out to work one day and I ran into a friend of mine, a republican, and he said to me a ceasefire's been called today. That was the first that I had heard of it. Of anything.
Q: During your time with the republican movement were you ever in the employ of any branch of the British intelligence
community?
A: Never.
Q: Have you ever received payment for passing information to any branch of the British intelligence community?
A: Never.
Q: Have you ever left Ireland at any time to meet with any branch of the British intelligence community?
A: Never.
Q: You said at the press conference that you want to return to a normal life. How likely do you think that is?
A: It's out of my hands. I want to get my life back, but who's going to give me a job? How do I get back to the way things were? It's not something that I can just make happen. At the end of it all, and this is just me talking from my heart, I don't want to put my family through anything any more. My family is too important to me. If I went back to live in Riverdale, I know at some stage these gutter journalists are going to come back and ask for my story, which they're not going to get because they hadn't the decency to ask for it before and I just don't want to put my family in the firing line. Everything's up in the air.
I will be staying in Ireland, I'm telling you that, I'll be staying in Ireland, but where I don't know yet. It's too early to say.
Q: What has the reaction been to all of this of the ordinary community - your friends, your neighbours and so on?
A: My wife does community-based work and she has had so much support. She has had Masses said for her, nuns and priests have called to the house.
The neighbours, now they didn't want to come to the house because of the press, but they have told my family that anything they need, anything they want doing, they will do it. None of them would speak to the press, which I really want to thank them for because obviously if they did speak, it would be twisted out of all proportion. Friends and family have been fantastic.
And I have to say this, the republican movement has been fantastic.
Without the help of the republican movement I don't think I could have got through this. That's the thing that has been keeping me going.
Q: What does Freddie Scappaticci do now?
A: The press have been stung by me appearing. I think that they wanted me to run, they really wanted me to run. They have said that I murdered the Gibraltar Three, that I murdered Tommy Oliver, that I murdered three people in Lurgan, that I have done this, that and the other.
According to the press I am guilty of 40 murders. But I am telling you this now: after this has settled, I want to meet the families of the people that they said I murdered.
And when I do I will stand in front of them and say: "I didn't do it. I had no part in it." And I will look them straight in the eye when I do it.