Family’s anger at 'double standard'
Seamus McKinney, Irish News
January 10, 2003
A soldier serving in the same regiment as the killers of Belfast teenager
Peter McBride has been discharged from the British army for assault.
Scots Guardsman Alexander Joseph Brown (24) was sentenced to three years in
prison at Derry Crown Court yesterday 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. He said he would also lose
service accommodation for his wife and young child.
However, Mark Wright and James Fisher, who were convicted of the murder of
18-year-old Peter McBride in 1992, continue to serve in the British Army
despite a campaign to have them dismissed.
Peter McBride’s mother Jean last night said the Brown case stood in stark
contrast to that of her son’s killers.
“It is only right that this soldier should be discharged from the army after
what he did,” she said.
“The message is we do not count for anything.”
Brown (24) was serving with the Scots Guards at Shackleton Barracks when the
assault occurred on July 14 2001.
Judge Corinne Philpott was told he smashed a beer glass into the face of
another soldier in a bar in Limavady in a row over a pint of beer. His
victim required 26 stitches and would be scarred for life.
Since the incident, he has been retained on guard duty at Dreghorn Barracks
in Edinburgh while his regiment went on a tour of duty to Bosnia.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and SDLP leader Mark Durkan intend to raise
the issue of Mr McBride’s murder and the decision to retain Wright and
Fisher in the army in separate meetings with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
A spokesman for the Pat Finucane Centre said it was clear that the Ministry
of Defence did not consider the nature of the crime, but rather “the status
and nationality of the victim”.
The spokesman said Guardsman Brown would have grounds for a legal appeal
against his discharge from the army in light of the decision to retain the
soldiers convicted of Peter McBride’s murder.
A spokesman for the British army said the MoD believed each case should be
judged on its individual circumstances.
He said the army considered there were “exceptional reasons” for retaining
Fisher and Wright.