Former Operation Kenova head Jon Boutcher has previously spoken of the “extremely fractious” relationship between MI5 and the high-profile investigation team he once led.
Mr Boutcher, who is now the PSNI’s chief constable, lifted the lid on the relationship in an interim report published by Operation Kenova earlier this year into the activities of the British agent known as Stakeknife.
Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, a former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), was exposed as Stakeknife in 2003 who was working for the British army’s Force Research Unit (FRU).
MI5 is known to hold a significant amount of information relating to the Troubles, which has been either been lost or destroyed by other agencies.
In the report Mr Boutcher confirmed the relationship between the Kenova team and MI5 had at times been strained.
“Kenova’s relationship with MI5 has endured some extremely fractious spells and the process of extracting information from it has sometimes felt like a hard-fought uphill battle,” he revealed.
“Given that MI5 had very little involvement in running security force agents in Northern Ireland during the course of the Troubles and Stakeknife himself was run by the FRU, this may appear surprising and it has certainly troubled me.”
Mr Boutcher outlined how the relationship between his former team and MI5 deteriorated over time.
He told how an external review was later put in place, commissioned by the spy agency, and an “operationally experienced senior MI5 officer” was appointed as an interlocutor.
“The Kenova relationship with MI5 improved significantly from then on,” Mr Boutcher said.
