A series of articles on the court ruling that the Ministry of Defence was wrong to retain the two Scots Guards convicted of the murder of Peter McBride, and on the appointment of John Spellar MP to the Northern Ireland Office. Spellar was a member of the Army Board that decided to keep the two Scots Guards in the British army.
By Chris Thornton and Mary Fitzgerald, Belfast Telegraph 13/06/03
THE mother of a north Belfast man murdered by soldiers called on the Ministry of Defence to dismiss the two Scots Guard killers after the Appeal Court in Belfast ruled that the Army had no good reason to re-admit them into the ranks.
Jean McBride, whose son Peter was shot in the New Lodge area of north Belfast in 1992, has fought a long court battle against the re-admission of her son's killers into the Army after they were released from prison.
After today's ruling, she said: "Finally somebody has said to stop this.
"Now it's up to the British Government, the British Army to dismiss these two men."
And she called on the MoD to bring to the two men back from Iraq where she said they are currently serving.
"Murder is murder. If they are convicted of murder they should not be allowed to carry a gun on the streets of Basra or anywhere else."
Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre, which supported the case, said the Government should "finally do right by the McBride family".
"The ball is now firmly in the court of the Minister of Defence, Geoff Hoon, and the Army Board."
Former North Belfast Assemblyman, Alban Maginness, also attended the hearing at the High Court. He welcomed the decision.
By Barry McCaffrey, Irish News, 14/06/2003
THE British army last night came under increasing pressure to dismiss two soldiers convicted of murder but subsequently allowed to return to their regiment when released from jail.
The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal ruled that the British army had been wrong to allow Scots Guards Mark Wright and James Fisher to remain as soldiers after having been convicted of the 1992 murder of father-of-two Peter McBride.
Fisher and Wright served six years of a life sentence for the murder of 18-year-old Peter McBride after he was shot near his north Belfast home in September 1992.
The two soldiers were allowed to rejoin the regiment in 1998 when they were released early from the Maze prison on special licence.
Since then the teenager's mother Jean McBride has taken a succession of legal challenges against the army's decision to allow her son's killers to remain as soldiers due to what the army termed "exceptional circumstances".
In the Court of Appeal ruling yesterday three of Northern Ireland's most senior judges, Lord Chief Justice Sir Robert Carswell, Lord Justice Nicholson and Lord Justice McCollum, ruled by a 2-1 majority that there were no "exceptional circumstances" that allowed the army to retain Fisher and Wright as serving soldiers.
While the McBride family claimed the verdict was an important victory, there was an acceptance that the judges had stopped short of ordering the army to dismiss the convicted killers.
Instead Lord Justice Nicholson and Lord Justice McCollum made a legal declaration that the reasons adopted by an army board to retain Fisher and Wright were not so exceptional as to permit their retention.
Lord Chief Justice Sir Robert Carswell disagreed with the other two judges, holding that the army board had been entitled in law to reach its conclusion.
He found there was no legal compulsion on the army to take any further action in relation to the retention or discharge of the soldiers.
"It can take such course as it thinks fit, having regard to the opinions expressed by the court concerning the conclusions reached by the army board," the Lord Chief Justice said.
Summarising the three judgments, Lord Chief Justice Carswell said the issue was whether the decision to retain the pair had been a valid application of Queen's Regulations, the rules governing the actions of the army.
One regulation states a soldier should be discharged if he is sentenced to jail. But a proviso exists that a soldier can be retained if the army decides there are exceptional circumstances - as the army board ruled in November 2000.
That decision was later upheld at a Judicial Review taken by the McBride family to challenge the army's decision.
But yesterday's majority ruling at the appeal court found that the decision to retain Fisher and Wright was not a lawful application of Queen's Regulations.
Lord Justices Nicholson and McCollum decided not to set aside the army's decision or order the army board to reach a different conclusion.
This decision was taken as it could involve usurping the function of army command and such a move might only have led to further legal challenges.
By Barry McCaffrey, Irish News, 14/06/2003
THE murder of Peter McBride and the treatment of the soldiers who killed the 18-year-old have been shrouded in controversy for more than a decade.
The unarmed father-of-two was shot dead after being stopped and searched by Scots Guards soldiers near his New Lodge Road home in north Belfast on September 4 1992.
After being questioned, during which time he gave his correct name and address, the 18-year-old ran off and was chased by the soldiers.
During the chase the officer in charge of the foot patrol was heard to shout the order "don't shoot".
Seconds later soldiers Mark Wright and James Fisher shot Peter McBride from a range of 70 yards, hitting him twice in the back.
He died a short distance away from his sister's home.
The two soldiers were taken to Girdwood army barracks, where police were denied access to them for at least 10 hours.
They were charged with murder the next day.
In February 1995 Fisher and Wright were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Trial judge Lord Justice Kelly found there was no reasonable possibility, as claimed by Fisher and Wright, that they had believed Peter McBride was carrying a coffee-jar bomb when he was shot.
The judge stated that Fisher and Wright had sufficient time to decide not to shoot at Peter McBride and had not been in a state of panic.
"Although both were aware that they had no justification for doing so, both discharged aimed shots at Mr McBride knowing he posed no threat to them," he said.
Lord Chief Justice Kelly found that Fisher and Wright had "lied about critical elements of their version of events... and deliberately chose to put forward a version which they both knew to be untrue".
In 1997 Fisher and Wright lost an appeal to be freed.
They had argued that they had been in prison for five years - two years longer than Paratrooper Lee Clegg and Private Ian Thain, who were both convicted after controversial shootings while on duty in Belfast, but were released within three years.
To date these four are the only soldiers convicted in connection with killings in Northern Ireland and all four have been allowed to return to their regiments when released from jail.
In July 1998 the then secretary of state for Northern Ireland Dr Mo Mowlam promised the McBride family that Fisher and Wright would not be among the first wave of prisoners released under the Good Friday Agreement and that she would personally inform Jean McBride ahead of any release.
But two months later they were released from the Maze without warning two days before the sixth anniversary of Peter McBride's murder.
Dr Mowlam telephoned Jean McBride less than an hour before the pair were freed.
In November of that year a British army review board ruled that the two convicted killers could continue as soldiers because of "exceptional circumstances".
The British army's own figures show that 98.6 percent of soldiers sent to jail are dismissed from the army.
In June 1999 the McBride family started what was to be the first of a series of legal actions challenging the decision to allow the two to remain serving as soldiers.
Three months later a Belfast High Court ordered the army to review the decision.
The army board was forced to sit for a second time because its acceptance that the soldiers' decision to open fire was an "error of judgement" went against the judgment at their trial in 1995, which found that they had deliberately chosen to shoot Mr McBride.
In November 2000 a second army board, which included armed forces minister John Spellar and Commander in Chief of British army landforces General Mike Jackson, upheld the original decision to allow the convicted killers to remain as soldiers.
The decision was condemned by the Independent Assessor on Military Complaints, as well as Ireland's Catholic Primate, the Presbyterian Moderator and nationalist politicians.
A motion condemning the army board's decision was passed unanimously in the Dail.
The McBride family again went to the courts to challenge the army's decision.
In the High Court last April, Mr Justice Kerr upheld the army board's decision to allow the pair to stay in the army.
The judge ruled the second army board decision to allow the pair to stay as soldiers was not illegal since other soldiers, Lee Clegg and Ian Thain, had also been convicted of murder while serving in Northern Ireland and had also been allowed to remain in the army.
The judge said it was "not without misgivings" that he had decided the decision of the board could not be condemned as unreasonable.
In May of last year the McBrides lodged an appeal against the decision at the Court of Appeal in Belfast.
Meanwhile, in January this year a soldier serving in the same regiment as Fisher and Wright was discharged from the British army for assault.
Scots Guard Alexander Joseph Brown (24) was sentenced to three years in prison at Derry Crown Court after being convicted of smashing a beer glass into the face of another soldier.
At the trial, Brown's counsel said his client would be dismissed from the army immediately and would lose all benefits.
Campaigners for the McBride family have identified other cases in which soldiers were dismissed from the army after being jailed for criminal activities less serious than murder in the eyes of the courts, such as drug offences.
Between 1990 and 2000 a total of 2002 soldiers were dismissed from the army after receiving custodial sentences.
Delivering the Court of Appeal's decision in the McBride case yesterday, Lord Justice McCollum said: "Quite apart from the issue of what may constitute exceptional reasons, I find it difficult to comprehend the view of the army board that it is desirable to retain Fisher and Wright in army service.
"Since a sentence of imprisonment almost invariably results in discharge, it is not easy to discern any feature in this case which explains the obvious sympathy and concern which all superior officers concerned have displayed for the situation of Fisher and Wright.
"The murder of an innocent fellow citizen should rank as a crime of the greatest magnitude and one would expect that soldiers who have misused the lethal weaponry with which they are equipped in order to take away a life without justification should be regarded as quite unfit for further army service."
By Barry McCaffrey, Irish News (EXCLUSIVE), 14/06/2003
THE politician last night named as Des Browne's replacement at the Northern Ireland Office was involved in the decision to allow Peter McBride's killers to remain in the army, the Irish News has learned.
A Belfast court yesterday challenged the British army decision to allow Scots Guards Mark Wright and James Fisher to resume their military careers despite being convicted of the north Belfast teenager's murder.
Within hours of the Court of Appeal ruling, however, the British government announced that as a result of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet reshuffle, transport minister John Spellar, was to replace Mr Browne.
The MoD has since confirmed that Mr Spellar was a member of the Army Board which three years ago unanimously voted to allow Mr McBride's Scots Guards killers to remain in the army.
Wright and Fisher were convicted of the 18-year-old's murder in 1995 and sentenced to life in jail but three years later they were released on licence and were then allowed back into the army.
Speaking from her north Belfast home, Jean McBride said she was astonished that one of the people who had allowed her son's killers to remain in the army was now on his way to Northern Ireland.
She expressed concerns that Mr Spellar could become Northern Ireland's victims minister, a post which formed part of Mr Browne's portfolio.
"I cannot believe that this man is being sent to Northern Ire-land, let alone the possibility that he could be the victims minister," she said.
"This was one of the men who allowed my son's killers to stay in the army."
Confirming the appointment, an NIO spokesman said an announcement on his portfolio would be made next week.
An NIO spokeswoman last night said Mr Spellar was unavailable for interview.
Speaking about yesterday's court ruling, Mrs McBride urged Mr Blair to take urgent steps to dismiss her son's killers.
"The highest court in Northern Ireland has ruled that there is no reason for this pair to remain in the army," she said.
"Tony Blair can't ignore this ruling today. If he does he is sticking two fingers up at the whole judicial system.
"In any other civilised country my son's killers would never have been allowed back into an army. They gave us assurances that these two would never be put in a situation where they could kill again.
"Then they handed them their guns back and sent them off to Iraq."
The family's solicitor Angela Ritchie said the authorities were obliged to re-move Fisher and Wright from the army, adding: "If the army board now chooses to ignore this (court) decision I think serious questions would have to be asked.
by Jim Dee, Special to the Boston Herald, Saturday, June 14, 2003
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - A Belfast court ruled yesterday that Britain was wrong to let two soldiers, who had murdered a Catholic teen in Belfast by shooting him in the back, remain in the army.
Mark Wright, 30, and James Fisher, 35, were sentenced to life for the September 1992 slaying of Peter McBride, 18, in north Belfast.
At their 1995 trial, they claimed they'd thought McBride was carrying an improvised hand-grenade. But the judge pointed out that the soldiers' own patrol had searched McBride and deemed him unarmed just moments before the shooting.
Wright and Fisher's surprise release from prison in September 1998 went largely unnoticed because Britain's Northern Ireland secretary ordered it on the eve of President Clinton's visit here to celebrate the Good Friday peace pact. The men then rejoined their regiment and were subsequently promoted.
Yesterday's Belfast appellate court verdict didn't call for the immediate expulsion of Wright and Fisher. Instead, by a 2-to-1 majority, the court said the army hadn't shown "exceptional reason'' why they should remain in the army - something army regulations require in such circumstances.
Speaking outside the court, Jean McBride, Peter's mother, said she was ``absolutely delighted'' with the court's ruling, adding, "I'm hoping the British government will take on board what they've said and dismiss these two men.''
Mark Durkan, leader of the pro-Irish nationalist Social Democratic Labor Party, said it would "add further insult to injury'' if Britain decides to appeal yesterday's ruling.
Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent, The Guardian, Saturday June 14, 2003
The mother of a Belfast teenager murdered by two soldiers reiterated her appeal for them to be thrown out of the army yesterday after the Northern Ireland appeal court ruled that the army was wrong to let them continue their careers.
Peter McBride, 18, was shot in the back after being stopped and searched by a patrol near his home in New Lodge in September 1992.
Scots Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher were jailed for life after being convicted of his murder in 1995, but were allowed to rejoin their regiment after being given early release in 1998. They are currently serving in Basra in Iraq.
Lords Justices Nicholson and McCollum ruled that the army was wrong to retain them but stopped short of calling for their dismissal.
The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Carswell, disagreed, arguing that the army board was entitled by law to reach the conclusion it did, and there was no legal compulsion for the army to take further action against the pair.
Jean McBride said she was "absolutely delighted". She said: "Two senior judges have said more or less that it is illegal for these soldiers to still be in the army.
"Now I am calling on governments everywhere, the British Ministry of Defence and everyone else to insist that these men be removed from the army right away. I believe this decision is more than a broad hint to the army to take such action."
She has vowed to take her case to the European court of human rights if necessary.
By Marie Louise McCrory, Irish News, 16/06/03
New NIO minister John Spellar should not be given the victims portfolio, nationalists and republicans warned Secretary of State Paul Murphy yesterday.
The demand came after the Irish News revealed that Mr Spellar was involved in a decision to allow two Scots Guards convicted of murdering north Belfast teenager Peter McBride to remain in the British army.
Mr Spellar, who was appointed on Friday, was a member of the army board which voted to ret-ain Mark Wright and James Fish-er despite their convictions for killing the 18-year-old in 1995.
While Mr Spellar will replace Des Browne, who was responsible for victims issues, a spokes-man for the NIO said: "The Secretary of State is considering ministerial portfolios."
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said that if Mr Spellar was given the victims portfolio it would be "deeply hurtful" for the McBride family.
"Mr Spellar's role has yet to be decided. It would be totally in-appropriate for a man who has shown no consideration for the suffering of Jean McBride and her family to have the victims portfolio," he said.
"Equally it would be wrong for a man who has had little regard for their rights and justice to be given the human rights and criminal justice portfolios and I am calling on Paul Murphy to ensure this does not happen."
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said: "John Spellar and the British government have been given an opportunity to undo some of the immense hurt they have inflicted on the McBride family.
"Mr Spellar's specific brief within the British team at the NIO is obviously a matter for Paul Murphy.
"There is a particular onus on the British Secretary of State to bear in mind the controversy now surrounding Mr Spellar and the British government's attitude to the McBride case.
"Victims, equality and human rights are key issues and the British government's appalling track record on these matters will not be helped if the wrong decisions are taken now."
Paul O'Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry, which campaigns on behalf of the McBrides, also called for Mr Spellar's name to be "withdrawn from the hat".