Freddie Scappattici pleads guilty to possessing extreme pornographic images

FREDDIE Scappaticci, the Army’s highest-ranking IRA agent codenamed ‘Stakeknife’ has pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing extreme pornographic images.

The 72-year-old, formerly of Riverdale in the Andersonstown area of west Belfast, faced Westminster Magistrates Court today.

In all, police found 329 images, including some involving animals, the court heard.

Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot sentenced Scappaticci – who worked as an agent for the Army’s ‘Force Research Unit’ (FRU) – to three months in custody, suspended for 12 months.

She said: “You have not been before the court for 50 years – and that’s good character in my book.”

The charges span from October 2015 to January 2018.

The first charge was that he was in possession of 329 extreme pornographic images – understood to be mostly of women, but also of men and animals, although there were no images of children – on 9 January 2018.

The second charge stated that he was in possession of extreme pornography between 6 October 2015 and 31 January 2018.

Defence QC Richard Whittam said the offending took place over 13 days, using 20 search items.

He added that the pornography comprised still images – not moving images – and they were not save onto his computer.

Scappaticci – known in the IRA as ‘Scap’ – was second in charge of the IRA’s ‘Nutting Squad’ which hunted down Prove informers.

He is currently under investigation for up to 50 murders as part of a probe codenamed ‘Operation Kenova’.

The probe is looking into the deaths of people at the hands of ‘Scap’ and the IRA’s ‘Nutting Squad’.