Caroline Moreland: IRA 'and state' blamed over murder

Freddie Scappaticci was alleged by the media in 2003 to be the British spy, code-named Stakeknife, but he denies being an informant

The daughter of a woman murdered by an IRA unit allegedly including a key British double agent, has said she blames both the IRA and the intelligence services.

Belfast woman Caroline Moreland, a Catholic mother of three, was abducted and murdered by the IRA in July 1994.

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

The BBC has heard final recordings made by Ms Moreland, under interrogation, before she was shot dead.

In a harrowing, and unusual recording obtained by BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight Programme, Ms Moreland can be heard "confessing" to having been an informer.

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

In the recording her interrogators made, she described how she was persuaded by British intelligence to pass on information.

Senior IRA sources have told the BBC that it is almost certain that one of her accusers was in fact - himself - a British agent, one of its most prized and senior - Freddie Scappaticci, who was given the codename 'Stakeknife'.

Caroline Moreland was abducted and shot dead by the IRA in July 1994

Caroline Moreland's daughter, Shauna, said she wants to know why, if her mother was an informer, the state did not intervene to save her.

She said she believes the state and the IRA are equally responsible for her mother's murder.

'Answers'

"One made the bullet and one fired it," she said.

"I would like answers. I want to know first and foremost if she was an informant why her handlers didn't step in and protect her?" she said.

"She was missing for 15 days, it had to set off alarm bells, people had to have known about it. She could have been brought back."

Ms Moreland said a few years ago two IRA men visited her and told her "it was basically just it was a war and that's what happens".

BBC Spotlight investigated allegations that Mr Scappaticci was involved in the murders of alleged British informants during the Troubles in Northern Ireland

"I don't really remember much of it to be honest," she said.

"They said my mummy was known and respected, but if you informed that was the consequence of it."

Mr Scappaticci has always denied being a British informant and tried to stop part of the programme from being broadcast.

His lawyers lost a court challenge hours before Tuesday's transmission.

In the recording of Caroline Moreland before she was murdered, she said she was pressurised into becoming a British informant and tells others they will not be harmed if they tell the IRA that the British authorities have tried to recruit them as spies.

The victim was heard to say: "I really regret getting caught up with these people and I really regret what I've done.

"They told me that I would go away for at least 25 years and that my children would be taken off me and put into the care of social services. It was at this point that I agreed to work for them.

"I wish that I'd been caught sooner but I really would advise anybody else that is in this situation to come forward and tell, and not to listen to the things they tell you, the fear that they put into you about what's going to happen to you. Just come forward and tell what you're doing."

The last sentence the victim is heard to say is: "No harm will come to you and you'll be helped."

Ms Moreland said she would continue to search for answers.

"I'm confident that I'll keep going until I hit the end of the road and can go no further," she said.

"Ultimately I just want to be able to give my mummy a voice and turn her back into Caroline Moreland, my mummy, and not Caroline Moreland, the IRA informant."

The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that collusion in murder was never acceptable and should be investigated.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said they cannot comment as the case is being investigated by the Office of the Police Ombudsman.

They acknowledged the suffering of families, but said intelligence had saved lives.

The ombudsman is investigating up to 20 murders of alleged informers by the IRA - and Stakeknife's alleged role in them.