Newspaper pays Scappaticci legal costs

Local & National

Freddie Scappaticci has an injunction specifically banning the naming of his whereabouts or stories about his health

Saturday, April 26, 2008

A newspaper has issued an apology to an alleged top ranking British agent within the IRA for flouting a ban imposed to protect his whereabouts.

The Sunday World's publishers also agreed to pay Freddie Scappaticci's £30,000 legal bill and make a £10,000 donation to charity as part of the settlement at Belfast High Court yesterday.

Scappaticci, who denies claims that he was the spy codenamed Stakeknife, took action against the paper after a report referred to his living arrangements and medical condition. Both were covered by an injunction he secured amid fears his life could be threatened. Lawyers for Sunday Newspapers Ltd, its director and the journalist who wrote the story accepted its terms were breached.

Michael Lavery QC, for Scappaticci, claimed the article contained a 'plethora of information' which could give clues to where his client's current location.

He said: "So long as people keep testing the limits of the injunction they always run the risk they will go too far and on some occasion will actually lead to the loss of this man's life."

The 63-year-old west Belfast man was thrust into the spotlight in 2003 when British and Irish media claimed he was the double agent Stakeknife, an allegation he categorically denied.

Brian Fee QC, for the Sunday World, accepted the paper had made a misjudgment over the medical details it published.

But he insisted the information contained in the report was so limited that it did not flout the prohibition in disclosing Scappaticci's current whereabouts.

Mr Fee likened the restrictions to the order imposed to protect the identity of Maxine Carr, the ex-girlfriend of Soham killer Ian Hunley, after she served a jail sentence for lying in the case. He claimed the Press have reported how she has undergone cosmetic surgery since her release without action.

But Mr Justice Weir, who heard the case, suggested the information printed about Scappaticci could be exploited by someone who read it.

"Maybe they phone some nefarious organisation and say we have read this in the Sunday World and we know something more about this," the judge said.

He added that a photograph of Scappaticci carried with the article was of " quite a distinctive" man. "He's not by any means a run-of-the-mill looking person," Mr Justice Weir said.

But with Mr Lavery stressing his client's main aim was to prevent any further breach of the reporting ban, the judge accepted the terms of an agreement reached by both sides.

In it the defendants apologised to the court and to Scappaticci, and agreed to pay his legal costs of £30,000 plus £5,250 in tax. They will also made a £10,000 contribution to the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association after the judge's suggestion that a donation could go to charity.

And a promise was made to abide in future by the injunction which prevents the publication of any details either of Scappaticci's whereabouts or of his medical care and treatment.