THE father of an IRA murder victim has lost a High Court challenge to the decision not to bring perjury charges against a west Belfast man who denies being the top British agent Stakeknife.
Senior judges rejected Frank Mulhern's case against the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) for directing that Freddie Scappaticci and three other individuals should face no criminal proceedings.
Lord Justice Treacy held: "We are not persuaded that any of the grounds relied upon are arguable."
Mr Mulhern's son, Joseph (23) was abducted, interrogated and shot by the IRA in 1993 for being an alleged police informer.
His death is among a catalogue of IRA murders under scrutiny as part of Operation Kenova, a major inquiry into the activities of Stakeknife.
Scappaticci (75) left Northern Ireland back in 2003 after he was named in the media as the spy - a claim which he denies.
Files were sent to the PPS by the Operation Kenova team for a decision on whether to charge Scappaticci with perjury.
It related to affidavits sworn in 2003 during his own failed attempt to force the British Government to state publicly that he was not the army agent operating inside the IRA.
In October last year the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Herron, concluded there was insufficient evidence for a reasonable prospect of securing convictions.
Lawyers representing Mr Mulhern had mounted a wide-ranging challenge to the validity of that decision.
However following submissions yesterday Lord Justice Treacy dismissed the application for leave to seek a judicial review and said he would give full written reasons for the decision as soon as possible.
