31 October, 1999
Dear Tim,
Just thought I’d drop you a wee note. I read the extract from your book, An Unorthodox Soldier, serialised recently in the Daily Mail.
You ask "Why were my soldiers charged with murder?"
The murder victim was 18 year old New Lodge man Peter Mc Bride. He was shot dead on September 4 1992. His picture didn’t appear in the two page Daily Mail spread. Yours did (army fatigues, stern expression befitting a former CO in the Scots Guards, side profile) as did the clean shaven mugs of guardsmen Fisher and Wright, your soldiers. Nice suits by the way.
Scots Guardsmen Fisher and Wright weren’t wearing suits that morning in the New Lodge when their patrol stopped Peter. He was checked and given a full body search.
You neglect to mention that salient fact in your book Tim.
The judge at the subsequent trial which convicted the two soldiers thought it highly relevant. But relevancy isn’t the issue here is it? According to your account young Peter upped and legged it "still carrying the plastic bag, which appeared to contain a cylindrical object." The infamous coffee jar bomb of course!
The next extract though is a gem. "Suddenly, Mc Bride stopped running and ducked down between two cars." To duck is an interesting verb. Brain sends message to lower back and leg muscles, stoop, bow, duck.
The two guardsmen "take cover". Who could blame them asks your average Daily Mail reader? This Mc Bride lad was definitely up to no good.
One slight problem with all this ducking, weaving and taking cover Tim. It never happened. You know that it never happened. Peter fell over a car having been shot and seriously wounded. As he slid to the ground he was shot again. Not exactly ducking if you see what I mean. More like collapsing. The prelude to death. Very involuntary. And Fisher and Wright didn’t take cover.
They took potshots at a youth whom they knew to be unarmed (read the trial transcripts Tim), was 70 metres away from them and was "running like a greyhound".
But what about the plastic bag with the alleged cylindrical object? You refute the prosecution claim that it contained a "packet of crisps and wet swimming costume." Is it not difficult to refute a claim that has never been made?
The prosecution claimed, and the judge accepted, that it contained a T-shirt, not a wet swimming costume.
If you’re going to make the story up as you go along read the trial transcript first Tim. Fabricate and embellish around it. At least then you won’t get caught out in the detail.
The coup de grace is contained in your deliberations as to why the plastic bag wasn’t found. "Perhaps it was spirited away by the IRA, who often removed weapons or explosives to support claims that the Army had shot an innocent man."
Devious Irish bastards eh? Neither the DPP, RUC or judiciary were convinced by this particular fairy tale but what the hell.
By the way Tim, Peter’s sister was given the T-shirt soon after the shooting. She still has it.
Your response to the shooting, as Commanding Officer, was novel to say the least.
In your opinion both men should have been rearmed and sent back on the street immediately. "It’s the same principle as getting straight back on a horse when you have been thrown off."
In the world according to Spicer, being thrown off a horse is the sporting equivalent of shooting an innocent (Irish) man in the back.
On this point at least I have no doubt that this is your honest opinion. Pity that it clearly contradicts Army procedures in such cases.
Things haven’t gone too bad for you personally since leaving the British Army. Your company, Sandline International, is doing a roaring trade supplying mercenaries to the world’s trouble spots.
I love that blurb on the Sandline website where you suggest that ‘client countries’ should have "preferably democratically elected" governments. Preferably...
There was of course that spot of bother in Papua New Guinea. A suitcase with $400,000 in cash, an embarrassing court appearance and riots on the streets. The Sierra Leone affair also caused quite an uproar. Questions in parliament and all that.
Where did you get the time to write the book? Of course the extract dealing with Peter Mc Bride didn’t require a lot of research. A bit of ducking, weaving and taking cover from the truth.
The fact that you chose to dance on Peter’s grave and murder his memory, causing great grief and anger for the Mc Bride family, is unsurprising. The sad thing is that senior members of the British Army and a Labour minister colluded in transforming the perpetrators, Wright and Fisher, into the alleged victims when they made the decision to allow both men to remain in the British Army following their early release.
The two guardsmen are now in Kosovo, you have an OBE and Peter is in his grave. But I have a message for you from Jean Mc Bride.
This story has a sequel. Peter’s ghost will haunt the British military establishment until Wright and Fisher are thrown out of the army.
Bye, Tim.
Yours,
Paul O'Connor
Editors note. In September 1999 Jean Mc Bride won a judicial review of the Army Board decision to retain the two soldiers. An official complaint has been made to the Press Complaints Commission regarding the Dail Mail extract from Spicer’s book.