British armed forces minister Adam Ingram was last night accused of snubbing SDLP leader Mark Durkan after a planned meeting between the pair, to discuss the Peter McBride case, was cancelled at the eleventh hour.
Mr Durkan said that his party had only been notified on Sunday night that the meeting with Mr Ingram, due to take place at Castle Buildings yesterday (Monday) morning, had been cancelled without reason.
"I am angered at the last-minute decision by Adam Ingram to pull out of the meeting to discuss the McBride case," the SDLP leader said.
"I am even more angry that the injustice done to the McBride family remains 11 years after Peter McBride's murder.
"Today (Monday) I raised my concerns regarding this case directly with the secretary of state Paul Murphy. I will also be raising them directly with Tony Blair."
A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman last night said that a letter had been sent to the SDLP on September 15, cancelling the meeting as Mr Ingram had other commitments.
But Mr Durkan last night insisted that no such letter had been received by the SDLP.
Accusing the British government of ignoring its own judicial system by allowing guardsmen James Fisher and Mark Wright to remain as soldiers despite having been convicted of Peter McBride's murder, Mr Durkan said: "Tony Blair has the power to end this injustice.
"He cannot continue to pretend that the retention of the guardsmen is a private matter between the British army and the guardsmen.
Anybody who cares about the rule of law must be offended when a major is kicked out of the army for cheating on a gameshow, but two murderers are allowed to stay on," Mr Durkan said.
Killer soldier's promotion is admitted
A soldier convicted of murder was promoted while British army chiefs were deciding if he should be dismissed from the army, it was last night revealed.
The admission that convicted murderer James Fisher was promoted to Lance Corporal while an army board was deciding in 2000 if he should be allowed to remain as a soldier, was made in a letter from armed forces minister Adam Ingram to the family of his murder victim Peter McBride.
A spokesman for the Pat Finucane Centre described the news of Fisher's promotion as 'clear evidence that the MoD subverted a court ruling and improperly influenced the army board.' He also questioned why the promotion was withheld from the McBride family's legal team at the time of the review board.
A spokesman for the NIO minister last night refused to reveal whether John Spellar, then armed forces minister and now Northern Ireland human rights minister had been aware of the decision to promote Fisher prior to taking the decision to allow him to remain as a soldier.
