Scappaticci vows to stay in Ireland despite allegations

THE man dubbed the highest-ranking British informer within the IRA has vowed to stay in the country despite allegations he killed 40 people.

Alfredo "Freddie" Scappaticci again denied that he was the British spy named Stakeknife, who successfully infiltrated the IRA. "I will be staying in Ireland, I'm telling you that. I'll be staying in Ireland, but where I don't know yet. It's too early to say," he told the Andersonstown News.

He said the republican movement believes he is innocent and it has supported him throughout the last 10 days. "Friends and family have been fantastic. And I have to say this, the republican movement has been fantastic. Without the help of the republican movement I don't think I could have got through this. That's the thing that has been keeping me going."

Mr Scappaticci revealed that he wants to meet the families of victims he's alleged to have killed.

"According to the press, I am guilty of 40 murders. After this has settled, I want to meet the families of the people that they said I murdered. And when I do I will stand in front of them and say: 'I didn't do it. I had no part in it.' And I will look them straight in the eye when I do it."

The west Belfast builder said he fled his home last week to protect his family.

"We are private people. We don't go about doing this, that and the other. My youngest daughter had actually to sit A-levels and it was all so traumatic that teachers had to take her out of school and she had to receive counselling," he said.

Mr Scappaticci said all speculation that he has played a leading role in the IRA in recent years is untrue. "I'm working away, I hardly ever go out. I don't drink, I don't socialise in republican circles. To suggest that I was at the heart of the peace process, doing this Machiavellian stuff, that I had the ear of Gerry Adams the Mr Big, in there for British intelligence, pushing the peace process one way, pushing it another to suit a British agenda. It's so ridiculous that it's just unbelievable."

Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen will raise the Stakeknife issue with Northern Ireland Secretary of State Paul Murphy at a meeting in Belfast today.