Third attempt to expel killer Brits

Jean McBride, whose son Peter was shot dead by Scots Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher in 1992, waited anxiously on Tuesday 20 April for the outcome of her third legal challenge to have the two killers thrown out of the British Army.

Wright and Fisher were convicted of shooting dead Peter McBride near his home in the New Lodge area of Belfast, but served only three years of a life sentence and were immediately reinstated into the British Army.

Speaking outside Belfast's High Court, Jean McBride said she will never give up the fight to get justice. "If I am not here then my three daughters will carry on the battle. If they tell me there is nowhere else to go other than the European Court then that's where I will go to get justice."

Last June, the Court of Appeal ruled by a 2-1 majority verdict that the British Army was wrong not to discharge Wright and Fisher, but judges Nicholson and McCollum stopped short of ordering the Army to dismiss them. The judges made a legal declaration that the reasons given by the board for retaining the soldiers did not amount to exceptional circumstances, the only reason they could remain as serving soldiers.

Last September, it was revealed that a British Army board had decided not to revisit the question of the employment of the Scots Guardsmen.

Barrister for the McBride family Séamus Treacy told Judge Weir on Tuesday that almost 14 years after the killing, the two men who were convicted still serve in the armed forces "with the full support of the military and political establishment in circumstances where it is clear that many others convicted of much lesser offences have been discharged".

Judgement was reserved by Judge Weir who said it was a very interesting case and that he would try to deal with it as quickly as possible.