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murdered teenager
Northern Ireland: Human Rights minister under fire over
murdered teenager
01 August 2003
Protestors today (19 August 2003) disrupted the launch of a new transport system in Belfast,
which was being hosted by John Spellar MP, the Northern ireland Office Minister for Human
Rights, Equality and Criminal Justice. The minister was targeted after sitting on the Army
Board that decided that the two Scots Guards convicted of the murder of north Belfast
teenager Peter McBride should be allowed to remain in the army (see below). Members of
the Pat Finucane Centre held up banners demanding justice for Peter McBride as Spellar
attempted to launch a new Global Positioning System for Belfast buses. Speaking afterwards,
PFC spokesperson Shane O'Curry said:
"If this man thinks he can walk in here and tackle issues of human rights,
equality and criminal justice while ignoring the abuse of those issues that
he has been involved in, then he needs a global positioning system of his
own. This man is not suitable to hold any such office, and should be
removed immediately."
The murder of Peter McBride
On 4 September 1992, 18 year old Peter McBride was shot dead after running away from a
patrol of the Scots Guards, a British Army Regiment on foot patrol in the New Lodge area of
Belfast. Two years later his killers, Guardsmen Fisher and Wright, were sentenced to life
imprisonment for his murder. The judge stated:
"I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there is no reasonable
possibility that Guardsman Fisher held or may have held an honest belief
that the deceased carried or may have carried a coffee jar bomb" [as the
two had claimed].
Following a campaign spearheaded by the Daily Mail newspaper that argued that the two
were guilty only of a "tragic error of judgement", Fisher and Wright were granted early
release on the 2 September 1998 - just prior to the sixth anniversary of Peter's death. The
decision was taken by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, then Dr. Mo Mowlam,
despite her earlier promises to the McBride family that the two would not be among the first
wave of prisoners released under the prisoner release scheme in the Good Friday agreement.
Wright and Fisher were in fact released before the legislation had come into force, at the
Secretary of State's discretion.
Although they had received life sentences for murder, the two had not been dismissed from
the army and rejoined the Scots Guards in November 1998, following an Army Board decision
that they could continue their careers in the services under an "exceptional circumstances"
clause. They are now serving in the occupying UK-US forces in Basra, Iraq.
Army ignores Appeal Court ruling
On 13 June 2003, almost five years after the army decided to retain the services of Fisher and
Wright - and after tireless campaigning by Peter's mother Jean and her supporters - the Court
of Appeal in Belfast ruled that the reasons given by the army board for the retention of Fisher
and Wright did not constitute the "exceptional reasons" required by the Queen's regulations
covering soldiers who receive custodial sentences. The Court stated that, while it did not have
the authority to order the Ministry of Defence to accept its ruling, it expected the MoD to take
full note of it. Two months later, the Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram MP announced
that:
"there are no plans for the [Army] Board to further review their [Wright
&Fisher] employment status."
In the letter from the minister, it also emerged that one of the convicted men, James Fisher,
has been promoted to Lance Corporal. Jean McBride reacted with total disbelief:
"Ingram has now rubber stamped Spellar's original decision which is
nothing other than the<