Mother of teen murdered by soldiers seeks confrontation

08/11/2005 - 07:15:14
The mother of a Belfast teenager killed by two Scots Guards now serving in Iraq was today hoping to confront their former commanding officer about the decision to allow them back into the British army.

Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher served three years in jail for the murder of father-of-two Peter McBride who was gunned down in the New Lodge district of north Belfast in September 1992.

In 1998 the pair were allowed to rejoin their regiment and are currently in Iraq.

Following the launch in the UK's House of Commons of a new campaign aimed at closing a loophole which enables soldiers convicted of murder to return to military service, sources close to Peter McBride’s mother Jean said she was hoping to meet former Scots Guard Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer at today’s Royal United Services Institute conference in London.

“Jean has been registered for the conference and intends to confront Spicer directly,” they revealed.

The Falklands War veteran is the head of the private security firm Aegis Defence Services which has been bidding for US security contracts in Iraq.

Human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan, Labour MP Joan Humble, Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre and Helen Shaw of INQUEST last night launched a Parliamentary campaign against the readmission of soldiers convicted of rape, murder and manslaughter.

Mr Shiner said he was backing the campaign because there would be outrage if a soldier convicted of murder in Iraq was allowed to serve in Northern Ireland.

The Birmingham-based lawyer explained: “If soldiers were convicted of murder in Basra, sentenced to life imprisonment, released early and then posted to Belfast people there would be outraged.

“This is essentially what has happened in reverse in this case.

“We must end impunity. The Ministry of Defence dismisses soldiers who fail a drugs test but not those who murder another human being. This is quite simply unacceptable.”

At a public meeting in September, London Mayor Ken Livingstone also condemned the retention of Guardsmen Fisher and Wright under Queens Regulations 9404 which states soldiers given a custodial sentence should be dismissed unless there are exceptional reasons.

The families of British army recruits who died at Deepcut barracks in Surrey have given their support to the McBride family.

Liz Green from Durham in northern England, whose son Anthony died after he was shot at Ballykelly Army Base, Co Derry, in 2001 said there were similarities with her own case.

“Another soldier was convicted of manslaughter for the killing of my son. He served a year, was released and readmitted back into the army the next day,” she said.

“Soon after he was promoted just as in the McBride case.

“The MoD thinks it’s above the law and its time that the law was changed. The soldier who shot my son dead should have been automatically dismissed. The soldiers who shot Peter McBride dead should have been automatically dismissed.

“Soldiers who bully someone to the edge of suicide or who murder civilians in Iraq should be automatically dismissed.”

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the family’s campaign was based around a very straightforward principle.

“Nobody who has been convicted of serious human rights abuses – like murder, rape or torture – should be allowed to serve in the British army,” the Foyle MP said.

“No other European army allows this and nor should the British army.

“Be it on the streets of Belfast or of Basra, the public are entitled to know that killers and torturers are not sheltered in army ranks.”