Scappaticci makes tribunal request

Alleged British agent and senior IRA figure Freddie Scappaticci, also known as "Stakeknife", has applied for full representation to the Smithwick Tribunal.

Counsel for the tribunal Mary Laverty SC said there will be a stage later in proceedings when Mr Scappaticchi may be mentioned in a very precise area. Currently Mr Scappaticchi has limited representation to the tribunal.

His solicitor, Michael Flanagan, said Mr Scappaticchi did not have the same access as other witnesses to information from the tribunal and had to rely on the media to follow its proceedings.

He was looking for discovery of RUC, Garda and British Ministry of Defence UK documents supplied to the tribunal, but Ms Laverty said she did not see the relevance of such a move.

Tribunal chairman Judge Peter Smithwick said if Mr Scappaticchi, who has not made a statement yet, had any information that was relevant to the tribunal he should make it known.

The tribunal is investigating possible Garda collusion with the IRA in the death of two RUC officers, Chief Supt Bob Buchanan and Supt Harry Breen, on the afternoon of March 20th, 1989. The two men were ambushed in Co Armagh just a half an hour after leaving Dundalk Garda station that afternoon.

Retired Det Sgt Owen Corrigan, who the tribunal has previously heard allegedly had very good intelligence links with the IRA, was a man who was “hungry for money” and had three properties and a valuable site in Drogheda, the tribunal was told.

The evidence of the now-deceased former Chief Supt Richard Cotterell, which was given in 2006, was read into the record.

Mr Cotterell described Mr Corrigan as an “excellent detective”, but doubts over his financial solvency meant he was not recommended for promotion and he could not be trusted "as far as you could throw him" when it came to paying for things.

However, Mr Cotterell said Mr Corrigan regarded the IRA as the enemy and he would have been “too cute” to have ever got involved with them. He had a great relationship with the RUC but never told them too much, Mr Cotterell's evidence suggested.

“I’ve spoken to a number of people, and they are all unanimous that he would not be involved in that,” he said.

Mr Corrigan’s legal representative, Jim O' Callaghan SC, said his client’s financial affairs were of “no relevance” to the tribunal and there was no suggestion that his failure to be promoted had anything to do with the IRA.

Retired Insp Tom Duffy, who was based in Dundalk Garda Station at the time, said Mr Corrigan was “very much against the IRA and very vocal in that way”.