Police search former NI agent's home

British special branch officers have carried out a raid on a London house used by a former intelligence agent who had threatened to reveal the identity of the IRA spy codenamed Stakeknife.

The address used by Kevin Fulton, a former soldier from south Armagh, who worked undercover in the IRA, was searched for several hours yesterday but officers left without making an arrest.

The search was carried out under the Official Secrets Act, prompting speculation officers were looking for evidence that Fulton leaked the name of veteran republican Freddie Scappaticci, who denies being Stakeknife, to the press.

A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said: “Metropolitan Police Special branch carried out a search on a house in south London under the Official Secrets Act. There were no arrests.”

Fulton has denied being the source of the leak but has in the past threatened to release signed affidavits revealing Stakeknife’s identity if anything happened to him.

He came to prominence two years ago when he alleged he had given police a tip off of a planned terrorist attack two days before the Omagh bomb in August 1998.

His claims led to the highly critical Police Ombudsman’s report on the investigation of the atrocity.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein today called on the government to publish full contents of the Stevens Report into alleged collusion between the intelligence services and loyalist paramilitaries.

Party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin, speaking in the wake of the latest media reports about the activities of Stakeknife, said it was time for the Prime Minister to end to “spinning and unverifiable allegations“.

“We have had a week of British Intelligence agency leaks and spin.

“It is time for the British government to come clean on the activities of its agents’ murky activities here over the past 30 years,” he said.

Mr McLaughlin claimed the latest media reports about Stakeknife showed that elements within the security service were intent on undermining the peace process.

“Tony Blair needs to get control of his Government’s secret services and end their dirty war in Ireland.

“He must also put a stop to attacks on the peace process by these agencies leaking and spinning unverifiable allegations.

“A start would be the publication of the full contents of the Stevens Report. The limited publication of just 15 pages showed conclusively that British intelligence agencies were recruiting, training and equipping unionist paramilitaries for a murder campaign against the republican/nationalist population,” he added.

But Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said it was clear that the stories emerging about Stakeknife were causing major embarrassment within the Republican movement.

“If republicans want to continually pick open the wound of the past 30 years of conflict by calling for investigations and inquiries into the police and army then perhaps it is time to examine in more detail the role of leading Sinn Fein politicians in the IRA and to examine their involvement in crimes including murder.

“I think Sinn Fein need to decide whether it is time to move on or alternatively, we spend the next 30 years raking over what has happened in the past 30 years,” he added.