In 1992, Scots Guardsmen Fisher and Wright shot Peter McBride in the back, murdering the unarmed young man after previously stopping, questioning, and searching him. The soldiers served less than six years of life sentences for murder and were released from prison in 1998. At the time, the two soldiers were only the third and fourth soldiers ever convicted of murdering a civilian while on duty in Ireland.
Soldiers are protectors, representatives of laws and government.
These two on-duty Guardsmen shot and killed an unarmed child as he fled. Though convicted, their release and lack of appropriate punishment was already a slap to the McBride Family and to all of Northern Ireland. The news of their reinstatement in the British Army is a deplorable outrage. In my view, the government officials who authorized their reinstatement are just as culpable as these two murderers. Walsh urged British government officials and the Army Board to reverse their decision and dismiss the soldiers.