The mother of a Belfast teenager killed by two Scots Guards now serving in Iraq was today hoping to confront their former commanding officer about the decision to allow them back into the army.
Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher served three years in jail for the murder of father-of-two Peter McBride who was gunned down in the New Lodge district of north Belfast in September 1992.
In 1998 the pair were allowed to rejoin their regiment and are in Iraq thanks to a loophole that enables soldiers convicted of murder to return to military service,
Sources said Peter McBride's mother, Jean, was hoping to meet former Scots Guard Lieut Col Tim Spicer at today's Royal United Services Institute conference in London.
"Jean has been registered for the conference and intends to confront Spicer directly," they said. The Falklands War veteran is the head of the private security firm Aegis Defence Services which has been bidding for US security contracts in Iraq.
A Parliamentary campaign was unveiled last night in the House of Commons against the readmission of soldiers convicted of rape, murder and manslaughter.
It was attended by human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan, Labour MP Joan Humble, Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre and Helen Shaw of Inquest.