Judge rules that Freddie Scappaticci’s will cannot be made public for 70 years in a legal first
The will of the man alleged to have been Britain’s top agent inside the Provisional IRA is not to be made public, the high court has ruled in a legal first.
Ordering that the will of Freddie Scappaticci, who is suspected of being the mole known as Stakeknife, should not be open for public inspection as is usual, Sir Julian Flaux said it was the first time this had been done for a person who was not a member of the royal family.
Scappaticci, who was accused of torturing and murdering several victims while simultaneously running an IRA enforcement unit and working for the British state in the 1980s, died in hiding in April 2023 at the age of 77. He always denied being Stakeknife.
In his ruling, published on Monday, Flaux said a hearing to decide whether the will should be sealed was held in private on 21 July. The application was made by a man named Michael Johnson, who had said he was prepared to act as Scappaticci’s representative providing that the will was sealed.
