NI: Paratrooper gets life
01 May 1993
Private Lee Clegg has been found guilty of murdering Karen Reilly, one of two joyriders shot dead in West Belfast in September 1990 (see Statewatch, September/October 1991). Another soldier was given a seven year sentence for the attempted murder of the driver of the vehicle, Martin Peake. This is only the second time an on-duty soldier has been given a life sentence for murder in Northern Ireland even though there have been 350 killings by security forces in the 24-year history of the current conflict, many of them in disputed circumstances. The first soldier to be given life (Thain) served just over two years before being released and re-joining the army. He has since left the army. Two other soldiers were given life sentences in England in 1981 for two notorious "pitchfork murders" committed in 1972 in County Fermanagh.
A few months after the joyriders were shot, Neil Kinnock visited the Paratroop Regiment at Palace Barracks, Hollywood (just outside Belfast). Press coverage of the visit showed that among the Xmas decorations in the officers' mess was a large cut- out model of the joyriders' car, complete with bullet holes and a caption which read, "Vauxhall Astra. Built by robots. Driven by joyriders. Stopped by A COY III". Above the Astra was the loyalist version of the Ulster flag in which the red hand is placed on a background of a six pointed star with crown. (The traditional Ulster provincial flag has a shield as the background.) A COY III was also written on the flag.
Clegg was a member of the Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, the same unit involved in sealing off Coalisland and allegedly assaulting staff and customers in a bar in May 1992 (Statewatch July/August 1992). It was this incident and further trouble five days later which led the Irish Foreign Minister to call for the complete withdrawal of the Parachute Regiment. Although at the time Security Minister Michael Mates described the behaviour of the soldiers as "entirely justified", six later faced various charges including disorderly conduct and assault. All six were acquitted in May but the Cookstown magistrate, Maurice McHugh, said the soldiers were "not entirely innocent" and bound them over to keep the peace for 18 months. In a further twist to the case, the Solicitors Criminal Bar Association has complained to Lord Mackay, the Lord Chancellor, about the generous legal representation given to the paratroopers who were represented by four senior QCs and four junior barristers at an estimated cost of £95,000. A member of the Association said, "if we have to be accountable for public money then so too should the Ministry of Defence. Otherwise we are going to develop two legal systems -one that skimps and a superior one for members of the security forces where money is no object."