A British Army spy operating at heart of the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland probably cost more lives than he saved, an investigation finds
Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed Stakeknife, was linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions; he worked in a ruthless IRA unit known as the “nutting squad”
UK security forces failed to prevent some murders to try to protect their agents in the IRA, the report says
Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher tells victims' families: "You are not mad, this was happening and this should not have happened"
And a lawyer for the families of 12 victims says the report is "a damning indictment of the state"
Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill says an apology from the British government "should be forthcoming"
Westminster's Chris Heaton-Harris says he won't comment on the investigation before legal cases related to it conclude
Scappaticci, who died last year, was unmasked in the media in 2003 and went into hiding; he denied he was Stakeknife
More now from O'Neill.
She says the legacy of the past remains unresolved, and adds that she is "committed to healing the wounds of the past and to building this better future each and everyone one of us deserve".
We're hearing now from Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill, who is speaking at a press conference.
She says she is "sorry for all of the lives lost throughout the conflict without exception".
O'Neill, Sinn Féin's deputy leader, says the injustices and tragedies of the past have left a "deep legacy" of suffering and trauma across society.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher says he is “not surprised” that Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris’ statement did not contain an apology at this stage.
He tells BBC News NI’s Declan Harvey the government “will need to read the report with care”.
“I would expect they would want to speak about the report and its findings. Let’s wait and see what they do.
"I would hope they would apologise with regards to what we’ve found. Let’s give them time to digest the report.”
When asked if Freddie Scappaticci was Stakeknife, he says: “I’ve answered that question as best as I can and made it very clear in the press conference this morning.
“Until the government give clearance for that info to be given – and I’ve made it very clear today that that clearance should be given – I believe in due process and doing things properly.”
Mr Boutcher denies that he has been “gagged”.
“Nobody would gag me, I can assure you of that.”
He adds that “a lot of the families have a very good understanding about who Stakeknife was” but he would not confirm if Operation Kenova has told families.
“I’m not talking to you about the conversations I have had with families. Today is about the high level findings of the report.”
Image source, PA MediaTánaiste Micheál Martin (Irish deputy PM) says the Kenova interim report "underlines the need for a comprehensive, collective and victim-centred approach to legacy issues".
"The report is clear. The PIRA’s response to those who were supposed to have informed against it was torture and murder," he says.
"Statements from very prominent Sinn Féin leaders at the time supported these actions," he adds.
Martin calls for the party to "unreservedly apologise and state unequivocally that the PIRA’s activities and actions were wrong".
He also notes the reports findings that British state agencies "withheld information in order to protect their agents, with the result very serious offences, including murder were not prevented or investigated".
Martin describes this as "a profound failure and an appalling dereliction of duty".
Baroness Nuala O'Loan, a former police ombudsman, says she was impressed with how Jon Boutcher and his team have been able "to resist all attempts to stop them and to get the information they needed".
She says the British government should make an apology and she does not believe it was "good enough" to come from the secretary of state.
Baroness O'Loan says this is a "national issue".
Enda McClafferty
BBC News NI political editor
Within days of becoming first minister, Michelle O’Neill was challenged about Freddie Scappaticci.
She was questioned in the assembly chamber as to whether she ever met the former Army agent.
Clearly frustrated she quickly side-stepped the question and said her focus was on building a better future.
The first minister will not be able to do this today.
O’Neill has vowed to be a first minister for all and that includes the families of alleged informers who were shunned by republicans.
Unlike the Sinn Féin leader she replaced, O’Neill has no questions to answer when it comes to dealing with informers.
For Martin McGuinness, "touting" was the ultimate betrayal.
In his time as an IRA leader he once said it was “acceptable to kill anyone in the pay of the British crown”.
Now, O’Neill is expected to strike a very different tone.
She will likely return to the message she delivered in her maiden speech as first minister.
Back then she said “sorry for all the lives lost during the Troubles, without exception”.
It was a catch-all apology.
But will it be enough for the families of those who suffered at the hands of Freddie Scappaticci?
They will demand an apology from the IRA which they are unlikely to get.
O’Neill has spent her first weeks in office reaching out to unionists -today she will have to reach out to those within her own community who have long felt marginalised by the republican family.
Her comfort zone boundaries will be tested even more today.
Chris Buckler
BBC News NI
Those who knew Freddie Scappaticci say he was a man with a temper.
But after he was unmasked as the Army agent Stakeknife that reputation as someone to be feared started to fade.
His house was attacked a number of times in the months after claims were published about his role as a British spy as well as an IRA enforcer.
On one of those occasions I was sent with a cameraman to take pictures of the damage to his home.
Moments after we arrived Scappaticci flew out of his house in his dressing gown.
The cameraman continued to film as he threatened us in the street.
It’s clear now many others heard similar words and experienced Stakeknife’s sinister stare… But those threats were followed by dreadful crimes.
The footage was broadcast at the time but a subsequent injunction prevented the BBC from showing those pictures again for two decades.
That court order was designed to protect Scappattici. He accused us of ‘torturing his family’ by filming outside his home.
That can’t compare to the actual torture he is thought to have been responsible for as he tried to force confessions from alleged ‘informers’, nor the grief their families still feel.
Warning: Video contains strong language
Freddie Scappaticci threatens BBC reporter and cameraman
Julian O'Neill
BBC News NI Home Affairs Correspondent
It stuck me that Jon Boutcher came in very hard on the conduct of the Provisional IRA. In many ways this set out to be a report on Army intelligence and MI5 and the operation of Stakeknife.
But Boutcher pulled no punches when it came to the conduct of the Provisional IRA and its internal security unit.
He has asked for some form of apology from the republican movement for what he felt were abhorrent actions by the IRA during the Troubles.
When I mentioned this to senior republican sources a few weeks ago they said, "but the IRA are off the stage". So I think that means any form of words is likely to come from Sinn Féin.
We will be keenly watching how Sinn Féin respond on behalf of the republican movement and whether any apology comes up to the bar set by Boutcher in this report.
A lot of the apologies post-Good Friday Agreement have been catch-all apologies addressing all deaths in the conflict.
I think what Boutcher is looking for here is a more specific apology.
It’s an apology which is basically asking the republican movement to disown a policy which it felt was entirely justifiable in the course of a conflict. Touting was the ultimate sin.
Image source, ReutersWe're now getting a response from Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
He is saying that he will "not comment at this time" on behalf of the government on today's interim report.
"It contains several specific, very serious allegations that remain subject to consideration by the courts," he says.
Heaton-Harris adds that he'll keep recent decisions by the Public Prosecution Service in relation to files passed to them by the Operation Kenova team in mind.
"Due to numerous related civil cases, however, that remain ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time," he adds.
"There is also the prospect of appeals against any of the recent decisions made by the Director for Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland.
Quote MessageI would like to put on record again my deepest sympathy with all the families who lost loved ones during the Troubles - including as a result of the actions of the Provisional IRA."
Image source, PA MediaPolice chief Boutcher is now saying that Freddie Scappaticci, the man widely believed to be the spy known as Stakeknife, should have been prosecuted.
“That is something victims will be regretful of," he continues.
In response to a question from Vincent Kearney of Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Boutcher emphasises that he definitely has not confirmed that Scappaticci was indeed Stakeknife.
"They’re just both mentioned in the report," he adds.
Police chief Jon Boutcher has now run through the 10 recommendations offered in the Operation Kenova report, and says that the UK government should apologise to the families impacted.
While doing so, he cites how former Prime Minister David Cameron issued a public apology after the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday - an event that the then-prime minister called the "unjustified and unjustifiable" killing of 14 civil rights marchers by British soldiers.
Boutcher says he believes the same thing should happen here today.
He adds that there should also be an apology from the republican leadership to account for the actions of the IRA’s internal security unit and an acknowledgement of the pain and suffering of surviving families.
In 2003, shortly before fleeing Belfast, Freddie Scappaticci was confronted by a BBC camera crew
Jon Boutcher says Stakeknife’s true identity has been subject to claims and speculation for 20 years.
“Stakeknife’s identity has been exposed to Kenova subject to confidentiality which I remain bound by and I cannot make his name public without official authority," he tells the press conference.
“Thus far the government has refused to give such authority.
“However, this position in my view is no longer tenable. I expect the government to authorise Kenova to confirm Stakeknife’s identity in the final report.”
Speaking on the BBC's Talkback programme on Friday, ex-BBC security editor Brian Rowan said there was no doubt in his mind that Fred Scappaticci was Stakeknife.
We're still hearing from Boutcher, the author of today's report and PSNI chief constable, who says security forces were operating in "a uniquely challenging environment" during the Troubles.
"They operated under extreme pressures. Mistakes were inevitable," he says.
“However – a lack of regulation, oversight and leadership were also important factors."
He says the absence of legal and policy framework when it came to the use of agents was "a very serious failure".
"It put lives at risk and left those on the frontline exposed."
The report author adds: "It fostered a maverick culture for some where handling agents was sometimes seen as high-stakes, dark arts and was practised off the books.”
Image source, PA MediaBoutcher says state agents provided a vital role in disrupting the IRA.
He continues: “Society owes many of these agents and their handlers a huge debt of gratitude.”
The IRA did all it could to deter and punish these agents – beatings, forced confessions, torture and murder, he outlines.
“At times the families of those accused of being agents – including women, children, the elderly and those with learning disabilities – were subjected to violence and humiliation by the IRA's Internal Security Unit (ISU).”
“Nobody should be in any doubt that the wrongs done by the IRA’S ISU and those responsible for its operation were utterly, utterly abhorrent.”
Luke Sproule
BBC News NI
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher tells victims' families: “You were not mad. This was happening and this should not have happened.”
His report confirms what many families had suspected – patterns of state intervention and non-intervention in torture and murder of people accused of being state agents during the Troubles.
“During the Troubles state agents were at the heart of a deadly battle between the security forces and the Provisional IRA," he says.
Image source, Getty ImagesSir Iain Livingstone, who was appointed as Boutcher’s replacement to lead Operation Kenova says it's only right that Jon Boucher presents the report.
Sir Iain outlines next steps for the operation, noting this is the interim report.
“Our work does not end today," he explains.
"We will now move to providing families with individual reports to provide clarity of what happened to their loved ones and provide the truth they have been denied for so long.”
The costs of and resources allocated to Operation Kenova also cover other investigations, he highlights.
Police Service of Northern Ireland Deputy Chief Constable Chris Todd thanks the Operation Kenova team for a "thorough and professional investigation".
He says the report outlines the "difficulties of Troubles investigations".
DCC Todd went on to say it was a "stark reminder" of the pain and suffering of families who lost loved ones during the conflict.
He adds these losses "should never be forgotten".
The Police Service of Northern Ireland have just published a link to the full Operation Kenova report.
It's more than 200 pages long - you can read it here, external.
Image source, PA MediaThe Operation Kenova report has just been released, and we're now going through all 208 pages of it.
Here are some of its key findings:
You can read the report in full here, external.
The press conference in Belfast has started and we are hearing from the Temporary Deputy Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Stay with us and we will bring you what Colin Todd says.
We will also hear from Sir Iain Livingstone.
Image source, PA MediaOfficer in charge Operation Kenova, Sir Iain Livingstone, PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, and Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Chris Tod