The father of a Belfast teenager murdered by two Scots Guards welcomed yesterday's news of an appeal against a court ruling which could have led to the soldiers' early release. The appeal is being brought by Secretary of State, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the case is expected to come before the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal in September.
Peter McBride (18), was unarmed when he was shot in the back as he ran away from a patrol near his New Lodge home in 1992.
James Fisher (27), of Ayr and Mark Wright (22), of Arbroath, Tayside, admitted the shooting but claimed they fired in self-defence as they thought he was carrying a "coffee-jar" bomb. They were convicted of murder in February, 1995, and sentenced to life imprisonment by Lord Justice Kelly.
This month Mr Justice Girvan upheld the soldiers' application for judicial review of former Secretary of State Lord Mayhew's decision not to refer their case to the Life Sentence Review Board until October.
By then Fisher and Wright will have served five years, which is two years longer than Paratrooper Lee Clegg and Private Ian Thain, also convicted of murder while on duty in Belfast.
Welcoming the appeal, Mr Peter McBride, the youth's father, said: "I realise the men who shot my son in the back cannot be kept in prison forever but I want them to serve the same sentence as everyone else convicted of murder."