A “sensitive RUC source” was providing information about the activities of British army agent Stakeknife to police, a new report has revealed.
Workers Party member Thomas Emmanuel Wilson (35), known as Manuel, was shot dead by the Provisional IRA in June 1987 after being branded an informer - a claim his family denies.
A father-of-four, Mr Wilson’s body was found in an alleyway off Rodney Parade, near Donegall Road in June 1987.
Operation Kenova was established in 2016 to investigate the activities of the British agent known as Stakeknife, including the murder of Mr Wilson.
At the time, his killing raised tensions between the Official IRA, which Kenova says he is believed to have been a member of, and their Provisional counterparts.
Fresh details about the circumstances of his murder have come to light after Operation Kenova recently presented a ‘family report’ to Mr Wilson’s loved ones.
It has now emerged that in the days after his death a “sensitive RUC source” provided police with information about the role of a man identified as Suspect I.
Suspect I is believed to be the British army agent known as Stakeknife, who in 2003 was revealed as Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci.
A former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), Scappaticci has been linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions.
Also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’, the ISU was responsible for hunting down and killing informers during the Troubles.
The recent report confirms that more than one source was providing information about the activities of the ISU to state agencies.
Scappaticci has not been officially identified as Stakeknife by Operation Kenova, or any other state agency, due to the British government’s Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND) approach to naming agents.
Mr Wilson’s son Paul last night said his father was killed by “paid hitmen” and British “government assassins” and called for a public inquiry into his murder.
The recent report provides new information about Mr Wilson’s death.
It confirms that the investigation team has recovered 35 “post murder intelligence reports” referencing the murder.
Three of these were generated “as a result of information provided by Suspect I”, who was arrested by Kenova detectives in 2018.
In total, 19 intelligence reports highlight the OIRA’s “disapproval of PIRA’s action and direct involvement in the murder of Thomas”.
It reveals that in the Suspect I was involved in an “extensive” ISU investigation into Mr Wilson in June 1987.
Kenova has evidence from military records that intelligence was passed to RUC Special Branch by the British army on June 27 - three days after Mr Wilson was killed.
The intelligence originates from Suspect I “and clearly refers to a detailed report of the PIRA ISU arrest and interrogation” of Mr Wilson.
“However, the relevant intelligence report has not been recovered by Kenova despite extensive searches,” the Kenova document adds.
Operation Kenova also confirms it has recovered “sensitive intelligence” that “directly implicates Suspect I as being involved in the interrogation that led to the murder of Thomas.
The report also outlines that Kenova’s investigations “have revealed the direct involvement of the same army informant in numerous similar fact murders over the years prior” to that of Mr Wilson.
The document confirms the British army later recommended the arrest of seven people to the RUC, including Suspect I, for the murder of Mr Wilson and others.
“This recommendation was made with a view to protecting Suspect I rather than holding those responsible for the murder to account,” the report reveals.
Significantly, the report also reveals that Operation Kenova has “recovered intelligence from s sensitive RUC source that directly implicates Suspect I as being involved in the interrogation that led to Thomas’s murder”.
The existence of a second suspected informer supplying information about the activities of the ISU confirms Scappaticci was not the state’s only source of intelligence about the unit’s activities.
The report reveals that the gun used to kill Mr Wilson, a 9mm Parabellum Browing pistol, was also used to murder five other people.
Two of these took place prior to the shooting of Mr Wilson, while three lethal attacks were carried out afterwards.
The gun was also used in four punishment attacks, including that of Victim 3.
In October 1987 Victim 3 was shot eight times including twice in both ankles, knees and elbows by the Provos for “alleged misconduct”.
He has identified Suspect I as one of six men who came into his home, claiming the agent fired the first shot into his ankle.
The victim, who gave a statement to Operation Kenova, refused to identify the other five people who attacked him.
Operation Kenova confirms the gun has also been linked to another attack which claimed the life of Victim 5 in January 1988.
Victim 5 was “abducted and subsequently executed by PIRA on suspicion of being an informer for the security services”.
Although not named, it is believed Victim 5 is Anthony McKiernan (44), a father-of-four from the Market area of south Belfast.
In the Wilson family report, Operation Kenova states it has “recovered evidence that directly implicates Suspect I as being involved in this offence”.
It also confirms that Suspect I reported on both the murder of Mr Wilson and Victim 5 to his handlers.
Investigators add that they are also able to “prove linkage” between Mr Wilson’s murder, the shooting of Victim 3 and the killing of Victim 5 “through expert forensic ballistic evidence”.
Operation Kenova concludes that the “reports provided by Suspect I himself, independent intelligence from another informant, witness evidence and ballistic evidence obtained by Kenova overwhelmingly points to the involvement of Suspect I in the interrogation of Thomas, which ultimately led to his murder by PIRA”.
The gun used to kill Mr Wilson was recovered, along with an AKM rifle, by the RUC after a follow-up operation linked to a thwarted attack at Girdwood Barracks in north Belfast in April 1989.
The weapon was destroyed in May 1992.
Solicitor Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, said: “The revelation in this case that an RUC Special Branch informant was reporting on Fred Scappaticci shouldn’t really come as any surprise.
“After all, the existence of more than one agent connected to ISU was foretold, albeit fleetingly, in last year’s interim Kenova report.
“With the delivery of these bespoke family reports we are now getting more detail on what was already flagged up last March.”
