Ingram dismissal 'an insult' to teenager's family
The dismissal of Major Charles Ingram from the British army for cheating on a television gameshow is an insult to the family of a teenager killed by soldiers in north Belfast, it was claimed today.
Nationalist politicians in north Belfast angrily denounced the British army for retaining two Scots Guards convicted of murdering 18-year-old Peter McBride in the New Lodge area of the city in 1992.
Guardsmen James Fisher and Mark Wright were sentenced to life in 1995 for shooting the teenager in the back near his home.
Three years later they were released on licence from prison and allowed to rejoin their regiment.
In June the Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled the British army was wrong to retain them.
Earlier this month the British independent assessor of military complaints, Jim McDonald, also urged the British army to set up an independent appeal panel to assess the cases of soldiers.
Sinn Féin and the nationalist SDLP today accused the British army of further insensitivity by dismissing Major Charles Ingram for cheating in the hit ITV gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Gerry Kelly, Sinn Féin’s north Belfast representative, said: “The killers of Peter McBride were welcomed back into their regiment and were rearmed after serving a short time in prison.
“Today we hear that the British major caught cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has been thrown out of the British army.
“These decisions taken together show the contempt with which those in the British military establishment hold Irish lives.
“It is deemed a more serious matter in their eyes to try and swindle a TV gameshow than to gun down an unarmed teenager yards from his own front door.”
North Belfast SDLP councillor Pat Convery was also outraged.
“Seeing the soldiers being given early release was difficult for the McBride family,” he said.
“But what they cannot accept – and should never have to accept – is that the two convicted murderers are kept on in the British army. That is a total affront to basic human rights.
“The fact that the British army have now decided to dismiss Charles Ingram from the Army because he cheated on a gameshow while Guardsmen Fisher and Wright remain in the army is a complete disgrace.
“It demonstrates the absurdity of allowing the two Guardsmen who have been convicted of murder to remain in the army.
“People will rightly question just how exactly the British government rates the life of a young man living in Belfast.”
