Stakeknife cost more lives than he saved during the Troubles

A TOP Army spy operating at the heart of the IRA during the Troubles probably cost more lives than he saved, a report found yesterday.

- Paul Jeeves

The probe into agent Freddie Scappaticci - known as Stakeknife found he did not save hundreds of lives, as had been claimed.

Instead the likely figure was between "high single figures and low double figures", it concluded.

It found that in trying to protect the identity of the secret agent - who engaged in "serious criminality" the operation failed to prevent at least 14 murders and 15 abductions.

It was the IRA leadership who "commissioned and sanctioned" the actions of its internal security unit, infiltrated by Stakeknife, and "committed brutal acts of torture and murder", interim findings of the seven-year, £40million Operation Kenova show.

Belfast native Scappaticci died last year in England aged 77, having spent 20 years in hiding after his cover was blown.