Victim's mother "outraged" over MoD comments

The mother of North Belfast teenager Peter McBride, shot dead by the British Army in 1992, has slammed the British Ministry of Defence over comments that her son's killers did not intend to kill him.

Jean McBride was responding to an MoD spokesperson who, when asked about the whereabouts of the two Scots Guardsmen who killed Peter, replied: "These guys presumably didn't think they were going to go out and kill on that day. It doesn't indicate that they are pathological killers. They committed murder but in a particular set of circumstances."

Jean McBride, who was furious at the comments, said it was impossible for any British Army official to know what was in the heads of the two Scots Guards when they killed her son in 1992.

"Nobody in the British Army could say they didn't mean it because nobody knows," she said. "They told nothing but lies at the trial. This is a terrible disgrace. I would like to ask the MoD how these murderers were put back into the British Army and rearmed when it is British law that no convicted murderer is ever allowed to hold a firearm."

Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre, which is helping the McBride family fight the case, said it is not up to the MoD to second guess the court and attempt to minimise or explain away the murder of Peter McBride.

"This reference to a particular set of circumstances is reminiscent of the circumstances quoted by Northern Ireland Minister John Spellar on the British Army board as justification for the retention of the murderers," said O'Connor. "The MoD still refuse to accept that the Court of Appeal held that there are no exceptional circumstances justifying the decision to allow Mark Wright and James Fisher to remain as serving British soldiers."