Call for boycott of North minister

The mother of a Catholic teenager who was shot dead by the British army 11 years ago has called on the North's political parties to boycott the criminal justice minister, Mr John Spellar.

Mr Spellar, as a former British armed forces minister, was a member of a board which decided to allow two Scots Guards who killed 18-year-old Peter McBride to remain in the army.

Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher were sentenced to life in 1995 for the murder but only served three years in prison.

On their release, they were allowed to remain in their regiment, a decision confirmed by an army board on which Mr Spellar served.

Mr McBride was shot in north Belfast in September 1992 after being stopped and searched by the soldiers.

Mr Spellar was appointed a Northern Ireland Office minister in June as the Court of Appeal in Belfast was ruling that the British army was wrong to retain Guardsmen Wright and Fisher in the army, although the court did not specify that they should be expelled from the Scots Guards.

Mr Spellar met the McBride family at Stormont yesterday.

Afterwards, however, Peter McBride's mother, Ms Jean McBride, said she was totally unhappy with the manner in which the minister dealt with her and described the encounter as a "disgrace".

She accused Mr Spellar of failing to address her concerns about Guardsmen Wright and Fisher remaining in the army.

"I want the political parties to boycott the minister until I get an answer as to whether the two soldiers will be thrown out of the army," Ms McBride told The Irish Times.

Mr Paul O'Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre said that at the meeting and at the family's request, one of the minister's officials rang the Ministry of Defence and was told that no decision has yet been made on the soldiers' future in the army.

A spokeswoman for Mr Spellar said: "The minister fully understands Mrs McBride's distress.

"The minister said he would meet her and has now done so, but the issue of the retention of Guardsmen Wright and Fisher in the army was and remains a matter for the Ministry of Defence."

Former Sinn Féin MLAs Mr Alex Maskey and Mr Conor Murphy, who separately met Mr Spellar yesterday, also raised the issue with the minister.