The secret role of alleged British intelligence agent Mr Freddie Scappaticci was withheld during a trial which ended in the jailing of Danny Morrison, it has been claimed.
Police Special Branch asked the Director of Public Prosecutions that there should be no disclosure of his details for fear of blowing the cover of one their top agents in Northern Ireland, according to a new book.
Mr Scappaticci, it is claimed, was second in command of the IRA's internal security unit who once interrogated and threatened to kill a security force informer at a house next door to where Morrison was arrested in west Belfast.
At the time in January 1990, Mr Morrison was Sinn Fein's director of publicity, and he was later jailed for eight years for his part in falsely imprisoning the man Mr Scappaticci questioned.
The book, 'Stakeknife: Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland' claims Mr Scappaticci tipped off military intelligence and had left the house to other republicans before it was surrounded by police and troops. Mr Morrison managed to slip away into a house next door, but was arrested after trying to bluff his way out.
Mr Scappaticci, who was never charged, has categorically denied being the agent, known as Stakeknife, but the book claims the then RUC Special Branch and M15 worked hard to conceal his identity as part of a plan to seize Morrison.
PA