Soldier's mother backs guards

Mark Wright (left) and James Fisher were convicted

The mother of the last British soldier to be killed by the IRA has called for an end to the campaign for two Scots Guards to be expelled from the army.

Mark Wright and James Fisher were convicted in 1995 of murdering Belfast teenager as he fled a military checkpoint.

They were released in 1998 and have been allowed to keep their jobs.

Peter McBride was shot iin 1992

Human rights groups have staged demonstrations against that decision, but Rita Restorick, whose son Stephen was shot dead by an IRA sniper, said the campaign against thre two guards should stop.

She said: "These two young men have paid the price for what they did and they should be allowed to go on with their lives."

Fisher and Wright were convicted in 1995 of the murder of father-of-two Mr McBride, 18, who was shot in the back as he fled from a military checkpoint in north Belfast in 1992.

They were freed in 1998, but the dead man's parents, Jean and Peter senior were appalled at last week's army board decision, which overturned a 1999 Belfast court ruling that they should not be allowed to remain as soldiers.

'Heinous crime'

Paul O'Connor, of the Londonderry-based Pat Finucane Centre, which has backed the campaign to get the soldiers thrown out, said: "Since Fisher and Wright were convicted in 1995, over 1400 soldiers have been dismissed for taking drugs.

"The Blair government obviously views the smoking of a joint as a more heinous crime than shooting an unarmed teenager in the back."

Stephen Restorick was hit by sniper fire

The Pat Finucane Centre has organised protests outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, at various venues in Belfast, and at British consulates in the US, Germany, Canada and Australia.

Mrs Restorick said it would be more beneficial for Mr and Mrs McBride to meet Fisher and Wright face-to-face, to tell them the pressures they were under in Northern Ireland and how sorry they were for the death of their son.

"I just wish they could see the difficulties these young men (Fisher and Wright) work under in Northern Ireland, the pressures they are under all the time," she said.

"I'm not excusing what happened, not for one minute, but we have to try and have an understanding of the situation these two were in. We are all hurt in this and we have all got to find a way forward."