HIGHEST STAKES

Brit spy at heart of IRA 'danger to himself'

- BY CILLIAN SHERLOCK and JONATHAN MCCAMBRIDGE

THERE were concerns that Stakeknife - the British Army's top spy in the ProProvisional IRA's internal security unit during the Troubles - was “a danger to himself" in 2003, according to Irish Government documents.

The agent has been described as one of the British Army's most prized assets, bringing them information from within the heart of the Provisional IRA during the Troubles.

The publication of the final Operation Kenova report earlier this month revealed the cultivation and recruitment of the spy, widely reported to have been the now deceased west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, started in the late 1970s.

Stakeknife operated as an agent into the 1990s, and his motivation was described as being "linked to a risk he was facing criminal prosecution" or a "desire for financial gain".