David McCloskey

Well, that's saying something without kind of saying anything in a way, because it doesn't really explain what handholds this skillful sergeant may have had on Scappaticci to make the pitch effective.

Chatting somebody up at a bar feels, especially a hardened guy like Scappaticci, that feels a stretch to me.

To me, that answer feels kind of right.

I mean, it's sort of blackmail light in a way, I guess.

It's using the leverage that the state has to make a big problem go away.

And the other bit of this that I think maybe adds some color is, I mean, we know, I guess, very few facts.

We know some facts authoritatively from Canova, which is the investigation into State Knife, and we'll come back to that later.

But

It says that the Army's cultivation and recruitment of Stakenife began in the late 1970s, and the motivation for him first wanting to become an agent was linked either to the risk that he was facing criminal prosecution or a desire for financial gain.

And the risk from prosecution certainly fits with the tax evasion scheme.

It fits maybe with the incident with an underage girl.

But as we'll see, and this is why I think you could explain the long-term duration of this relationship is, I think it's both...

making a problem go away, and also the promise of financial gain to come.

So it's not purely this jailhouse recruitment where we're using leverage over you.

We're going to pay you quite well over the years to compel your cooperation with us.

Those two things merged together for a guy like Scappaticci, I think really works.

We talked earlier about how

He likes stuff.

He likes vacations.

He's got his Manchester City season tickets.