The two soldiers were involved in a long-running legal battle to secure their early release. The following is a summary of their criminal and civil court cases:
September 5th, 1992: Charged at Belfast Magistrate's Court with murdering Peter McBride.
February 10th, 1995: Convicted by Lord Justice Kelly at Belfast Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
December 21st, 1995: Appeal dismissed. Former Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Hutton called for a change in the law in such cases to allow judges to impose a "just" sentence rather than life imprisonment.
February 12th, 1996: Refused leave to appeal to House of Lords.
December 12th, 1996: Mr Justice Girvan granted judicial review of decision by Life Sentence Review Board not to review the case until "late 1998", which meant the two would have served longer sentences than Paratrooper Lee Clegg and Private Ian Thain, also convicted of murder while on duty in Belfast. The judge directed the then secretary of state, Sir Patrick Mayhew, to reconsider the case.
May 20th, 1997: Second application for judicial review of decision by Dr Mo Mowlam, the new Northern Secretary, bringing forward the LSRB hearing to October 1997.
July 2nd, 1997: In a reserved judgment, Mr Justice Girvan again directed the Secretary of State to reconsider.
August 15th, 1997: Dr Mowlam appealed and the court quashed Mr Justice Girvan's direction.
October 1997: The LSRB decided the two should not be released and that their cases would be considered again in October 1998.
May 22nd, 1998: Third application for judicial review. Mr Justice Coghlin refused to quash the Secretary of State's decision to defer consideration of the case until after the October review by the LSRB. But the judge granted a declaration that there had been a failure to provide the soldiers with "proper and adequate" reasons to distinguish their case from that of Private Thain. The case was again sent back to the Secretary of State for further consideration.