February 21, 2004 Scap's Den in the Sun
by Liz Trainor, The People

A cosy Italian hotel is where Stakeknife Freddie Scappaticci came to lie low after bolting from Ulster when his cover was blown. And the double agent, who has pocketed a fortune from a generation of informing, feels so secure in Cassino that he's now building his own secret hideaway on the outskirts of the wealthy town. But today we can reveal that the British Army mole - who killed as a Provo yet was given a free reign by the Army - will never get to live in that stylish villa.

For The People can reveal the Provisionals have now completed a long inquiry into Scappaticci's activities and concluded he was the agent Stakeknife. That means he's going to have to change his plans and live his life well out of harm's way and not back in the Italian town which he calls his second home.

Scap, as he was known to fellow Provos, is a big fan of this idyllic area of Italy. It's where his father grew up and Belfast-born Freddie always planned to retire there.

When his cover was blown by us last May, he bolted to the La Pace hotel - which ironically means 'The Peace' in Italian - to escape the harsh questions being asked back home. It was already his favourite holiday spot where he has planned to escape to for ever

However on his last sudden visit, he gathered up his wife and some of his family and spent six weeks and a massive £15,000 at the hotel, just to be away from prying eyes. But the life of lies and the reign of terror he led have come back to haunt him.

Stakeknife, who killed informers and'innocent' people he branded touts, would be foolish to try to retire to Cassino.

Plans that the 58-year-old has to scrap have been at least 10 years in the making, but they came crashing down in moments. They included:
   a.. building on land bought from a relative in Cassino in the 1990s
   b.. fitting out the villa with top notch fixtures and fittings He had already taken four different Italian classes to help him fit in, and he had transferred hundreds of thousands of pounds in tout money from a secret bank account in Gibraltar to Italy.

Even though Scap would be surrounded by distant relatives in Cassino, there would be no family unit he could call on to save him from the future clutches of the IRA. His movements have been tracked to the tiny family-run hotel between Rome and Naples.

It's the perfect destination to lie low in splendour, and a great place for someone to find enough peace and quiet to plot their next move.

The Peace Hotel pays homage to the town's war dead and the reception area is bedecked with memorabilia from a World War Two battle for the town. As Scap's own war continued, he frequently travelled to Cassino during the last decade. Republican sources are convinced that this is where he would have been comfortable to meet up with handlers during his long and bloody reign as a top IRA enforcer.

"These are things we are still looking into," we were told by one source deep in the IRA. "He certainly needed a lot of time somewhere far away to do all the talking that he did."

Many British visitors come to the area to pay respects to relatives killed during the battle for the town, and it's thought he could easily have hooked up with his army chiefs for talks. Hotel staff told us that Scap, who is known in the town as a well-off man and treated as a special guest, had stayed at the hotel for six weeks during last July and August - just weeks after his cover was blown. They told us he has been a frequent visitor, staying regularly over the years and always enjoying the best of Italian hospitality. Sleep

"He likes to eat and drink and sleep and have a really nice time," one member of staff said. Scap prefers to stay in rooms which have the best views of the surrounding hills and the spectacular Monte Cassino mountain. When dining in the hotel's award-winning restaurant, he has always chosen the finest food and preferred to sip on local liquors and Chianti wines. He leaves large tips, carries wads of cash and insists on being treated well. And it was here that he first hatched a plan to build a house on land sold to him by a distant relative.

The property, we can reveal, is being built along a stretch of coastline in the Gaeta area 20 miles outside the town, not far from the Bay of Naples and the paradise island of Capri.

"It's well for some," growled one current senior Provisional IRA source when he learned of Scappaticci's hideaway.

The news comes as the revelations which damn Scappaticci keep on coming. In the latest he has been caught out for blaming loyalists for attacks on his home.

However, the attacks, as police reports prove, were the work of republicans. One security source told us: "Loyalists have no interest in Mr Scappaticci.

"News that he is planning to get far away from Belfast is not surprising. But he might want to be more imaginative than just going to the same place he's gone to for years."