Overview
- The final Operation Kenova report was released with the UK government enforcing NCND, preventing formal identification of the agent widely believed to be Freddie Scappaticci, who died in 2023.
- Investigators report MI5 involvement from the outset and say significant files were disclosed only after last year’s interim report, including evidence handlers twice flew the agent out when police wanted him for murder.
- Kenova links the agent to the IRA’s internal security unit and lists him as a suspect in more than two dozen offences, with the interim report attributing 14 murders and 15 abductions.
- The inquiry recovered 3,517 intelligence reports from the source and found protection of the asset repeatedly outweighed actions that could have saved lives, with more deaths likely than lives saved.
- The Public Prosecution Service will bring no charges, and the report renews calls for apologies, a review of NCND, and memorialisation, while its Denton findings say the UVF carried out the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and that no narrowly defined ‘Glenanne Gang’ existed.