Paratrooper gets life
01 January 1991
Paratrooper gets life
artdoc July=1993
Private Lee Clegg has been found guilty of murdering Karen
Reilly, one of two joyriders shot dead in West Belfast in
September 1990 (see Statewatch, September/October 1991). Another
soldier was given a seven year sentence for the attempted murder
of the driver of the vehicle, Martin Peake. This is only the
second time an on-duty soldier has been given a life sentence for
murder in Northern Ireland even though there have been 350
killings by security forces in the 24-year history of the current
conflict, many of them in disputed circumstances. The first
soldier to be given life (Thain) served just over two years
before being released and re-joining the army. He has since left
the army. Two other soldiers were given life sentences in England
in 1981 for two notorious `pitchfork murders' committed in 1972
in County Fermanagh.
A few months after the joyriders were shot, Neil Kinnock
visited the Paratroop Regiment at Palace Barracks, Hollywood
(just outside Belfast). Press coverage of the visit showed that
among the Xmas decorations in the officers' mess was a large cut-
out model of the joyriders' car, complete with bullet holes and
a caption which read, `Vauxhall Astra. Built by robots. Driven
by joyriders. Stopped by A COY III'. Above the Astra was the
loyalist version of the Ulster flag in which the red hand is
placed on a background of a six pointed star with crown. (The
traditional Ulster provincial flag has a shield as the
background.) A COY III was also written on the flag.
Clegg was a member of the Third Battalion of the Parachute
Regiment, the same unit involved in sealing off Coalisland and
allegedly assaulting staff and customers in a bar in May 1992
(Statewatch July/August 1992). It was this incident and further
trouble five days later which led the Irish Foreign Minister to
call for the complete withdrawal of the Parachute Regiment.
Although at the time Security Minister Michael Mates described
the behaviour of the soldiers as `entirely justified', six later
faced various charges including disorderly conduct and assault.
All six were acquitted in May but the Cookstown magistrate,
Maurice McHugh, said the soldiers were `not entirely innocent'
and bound them over to keep the peace for 18 months. In a further
twist to the case, the Solicitors Criminal Bar Association has
complained to Lord Mackay, the Lord Chancellor, about the
generous legal
representation given to the paratroopers who were represented by
four senior QCs and four junior barristers at an estimated cost
of Ã95,000. A member of the Association said, `if we have to be
accountable for public money then so too should the Ministry of
Defence. Otherwise we are going to develop two legal systems -
one that skimps and a superior one for members of the security
forces where money is no object'.
Statewatch vol 3 no 3 May-June 1993