Police quiz IRA informer 'linked to Stakeknife'

An IRA informer who claimed he was threatened by the alleged British agent codenamed Stakeknife was questioned today by the team of British detectives investigating collusion allegations in Northern Ireland.

The man known as Kevin Fulton spent an hour with officers belonging to the squad headed by Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens.

They asked to meet him after he alleged 57-year-old west Belfast builder Freddie Scappaticci interrogated him following a failed IRA ambush on a top detective in east Belfast in 1994.

Police arrested a number of terrorists who had been planning to ambush Chief Superintendent Derek Martindale.

Fulton claimed last week he and another member of his family were interrogated by Scappaticci amid allegations police had been tipped off in advance of the planned IRA attack.

Scappaticci, from west Belfast, has categorically denied he was a £80,000 agent for British military intelligence while a key member of the IRA’s so-called internal security squad.

John Stevens has already confirmed he intends to interview Stakeknife.

But Fulton’s meeting today in central London was the first direct contact with someone allegedly involved at the centre of the Scappaticci affair.

Fulton, 43, said tonight: “They asked for this meeting and I agreed to it even though I don’t have a great deal of faith in the Stevens Inquiry.

“I can’t comment on what was discussed because they said the allegations were serious and the investigation was still alive.

“They assured me that my allegations would be fully investigated.”

Fulton has denied claims he was behind newspaper allegations identifying Stakeknife but insists Scappaticci detained and questioned him as part of an IRA probe into the failed attack on Martindale.

Last month, a report by the Stevens Inquiry found members of the Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary colluded with the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association.

Up to 20 Army and police personnel could face criminal charges arising out of the report which centred on the murder of Catholic solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989 and Protestant student Adam Lambert in 1987.