Luke Sproule
BBC News NI

An Army spy operating at the heart of the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland probably cost more lives than he saved, a report has found.

As we've been reporting, Operation Kenova investigated the agent known as Stakeknife.

It said speculation he had saved hundreds of lives was wrong and it was more likely it was between high single figures and low double figures.

It found the security forces failed to prevent some murders to try to protect their agents in the IRA.

The report also calls for apologies from the UK government and Irish republican leadership on behalf of the IRA.

Claire Brennan
BBC News NI at the Stormont Hotel

Dozens of journalists are gathering at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast ahead of the publication of the Operation Kenova report.

Its author, Jon Boutcher, will deliver the findings of the £40m investigation - and take questions from the press pack shortly.

You can watch the press conference live by clicking on the play button at the top of the screen when it begins.

Julian O'Neill
BBC News NI Home Affairs Correspondent

Image source, Pacemaker

The Provisional IRA is estimated to have killed more than 70 people it accused of acting as informers.

"Touting" - acting as an informant on the IRA - was seen as the ultimate betrayal.

And yet Freddie Scappaticci was spared after suspicion fell on him.

Stood down, but neither questioned nor executed.

When he was publicly unmasked in newspapers as Stakeknife in 2003, the IRA and Sinn Féin went along with his denial.

"He was too big an embarrassment to kill," says Brian Rowan, a former BBC security editor.

"Killing him was to accept that the IRA's Internal Security Unit had been completely compromised by the British.

"My suspicion also is had the IRA shot him, it would have been the end of major political negotiations which Sinn Féin were in the middle of to put Stormont back together."

Read more here.

Image source, PA Media

Jon Boutcher arrived in Belfast in 2016 to lead the Operation Kenova investigation.

He now holds the top job at the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

His most senior role before his appointment to PSNI was as chief constable of Bedfordshire Police, a post he held from 2015 to 2019.

Back in 2016, Boutcher said in his first news conference as the lead officer for Operation Kenova: "My principal aim in taking responsibility for this investigation is to bring those responsible for these awful crimes, in whatever capacity they were involved, to justice."

After accepting the role of PSNI chief constable last November, Sir Iain Livingstone was appointed as Boutcher’s replacement on Kenova.

Image source, Pacemaker

Operation Kenova is looking into more than 50 murders including that of Caroline Moreland, a Catholic mother-of-three who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in July 1994.

The body of the 34-year-old was found near Roslea, County Fermanagh.

Just before the ceasefires of 1994, she came under the suspicion of the IRA, was kidnapped, held for two weeks and shot dead.

After she was kidnapped, her interrogators made a recording of her in which she can be heard "confessing" to having been an informer.

Image source, Pacemaker

Moreland's daughter, Shauna, said she wanted to know why, if her mother was an informer, the state had not intervened to save her.

Shauna was 10 when her mother was killed. Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Shauna said her main goal was to "get someone to say that her life mattered".

"I didn't want prosecutions, I didn't care about that. I just wanted answers," she said.

"If she was informing then she would have had handlers who would have known she was missing and could have stepped in to save her."

Members of the media have gathered at a hotel in east Belfast where a press conference will be held later this morning.

The interim findings of Operation Kenova are due to be published at 11:00 GMT.

We’re expecting to hear from Jon Boutcher, the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable, around the same time.

We’ll also hear from Troubles victims’ families later this afternoon as they react to the report’s findings.

You will be able to watch live coverage of events by clicking the link at the top of this page as they happen.

As first revealed by Brian Rowan, BBC News NI's former security editor, the report is likely to call for an apology from the UK government on what could have been prevented and call for an apology from republicans for IRA murders and how families were intimidated and ostracised.

It is understood that Freddie Scappaticci will not be named as Stakeknife.

The UK government has a policy of neither confirming nor denying claims relating to intelligence issues.

The Public Prosecution Service said 32 people were considered for prosecution across a range of charges, from murder and abduction to misconduct in public office and perjury as a result of the report.

However, they have said that no-one will be charged due to "insufficient" evidence.

Image source, Pacemaker

Ahead of the release of this morning's report, it's worth reminding exactly what Operation Kenova focussed on. That was the activities of the British agent codenamed "Stakeknife" - who was a west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci.

Scappaticci, who died last year aged 77, was born to an Italian family which came to Belfast in the 1940s.

A bricklayer by trade, he was interned without trial between 1971 and 1974. A few years later he became a paid spy for the Army, reportedly crossing over after being beaten up by the IRA following a row with a senior member.

He operated within the IRA's internal security unit throughout the 1980s, which was responsible for killing people it accused of being informers.

Scappaticci has previously been linked to 18 murders, but he died before the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) made a decision on whether he should face charges for his most serious crimes.

A reminder that Scappaticci will not be identified in the Operation Kenova report because of the existing government and security policy of not naming agents.

Continue reading about his past here.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the publication of a report into the Army agent known as Stakeknife.

Freddie Scappaticci operated at the heart of the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles and was referred to as the "golden egg" of intelligence.

He has been linked to multiple murders which have been examined as part of the long-running Operation Kenova.

We will be bringing you live coverage of the report's release, as well as providing timely reaction and analysis from our correspondents throughout the day.