A new investigative BBC 5 Live podcast is available BBC Voices 22 November tells the true story of a senior member of the IRA known as Staeknife, whose double life as a British Army agent helped him get away with murder.

Staknife is the new series from the team behind the multi-award-winning BBC podcast Where Is George Gibney?, which has been downloaded millions of times and sparked a new police investigation. Both podcasts now fall under the newly launched Cover series on BBC Sounds. Three years in the making, Stataknife tells the story of one of the most controversial and darkest chapters of the Troubles.

Freddie Scappaticci led a double life. He was a senior member of the IRA and was tasked with finding and questioning informers (individuals accused of passing information to the police and the British Army). He was also an undercover British military agent: described by the British Army as its golden egg, its most valuable agent, someone who had secret access to the IRA for decades.

During his time in the IRA he was the notorious enforcer of an internal security unit called the ‘crazy squad’, where torture and extrajudicial killings of informers were commonplace. From 1978 to 1994, the IRA killed more than forty people for allegedly acting as informers for British security forces; This was something Stataknife himself did.

These murders were often allowed to occur despite the surveillance of state security forces.

Throughout the ten-part series, listeners hear from several families of alleged informers killed by the IRA’s internal security unit; Some of these are speaking publicly for the first time. Reflecting on the death of his father after he was shot for allegedly being an informant, one contributor emotionally asks the show’s creators: “Who could play God?”

In this time when their loved ones continue to be branded as traitors, many families remain silent for fear of repercussions.

Podcast host Mark Horgan also speaks to former British Army intelligence officers from the unit that ran Stakeknife and uses secret recordings and extensive archive audio to reveal the surprising story of this notorious man.

Why was it protected? Where did he go? How did he walk the tightrope between the IRA and British Army intelligence for so long? How will society try to reconcile the truth about what happened when neither side wants Staeknife’s full story to come out?

Award-winning producer and reporter Mark Horgan says of the podcast: “This series examines one of the most brutal yet fascinating characters of the conflict in Northern Ireland. But the series is about much more than just one man; “It’s about the state structures that protect him, the eyes that turn a blind eye to his actions, and the families he leaves behind.”

Series commissioner Dylan Haskins says: “Stataknife, like Where’s George Gibney?, has been meticulously produced over three years and takes us deep into some of the darkest chapters of British and Irish history, with consequences that continue to emerge today. “The series combines compelling storytelling, beautiful audio “It combines design and compelling journalism that draws listeners into the story, while knowing that these are real-life stories that deeply touch real people.”

Stakeknife is Cover’s new series. BBC VoicesThe first two episodes will air on Friday, November 22, and a new episode will be released every week thereafter.

MCL/NETWORK