Was Lee Clegg a murderer or just a political pawn? Was this the Nationalists revenge for Bloody Sunday? The DPP thought there was no case to answer. Why was he then convicted, paroled and then acquitted of the charge? The army obviously never thought of him as a killer so then why did the British government bow to Irish pressure and then act on public pressure for his release and acquittal?
The incident of which Lee Clegg was convicted of happened in September 1990. Some reports state that there was no Vehicle Stop Point that night, yet a sixteen man Army /RUC joint patrol set off to the Upper Glen to arrest joyriders. The army hid in the bushes while the RUC officers set up the Vehicle Stop Point to stop suspect vehicles. Just before midnight auxiliary psychiatric nurse Eugene Brannigan missed his turning after dropping a friend at home. He stopped in the middle of the Glen Road to do a U-turn. There was no Vehicle Stop Point, no soldiers, and no police. Suddenly, soldiers appeared “out of the bushes”. While the soldiers were dealing with Eugene the stolen Astra appeared. At the wheel was 17-year-old Martin Peake, in the back was 18-year-old Karen Reilly, and teenager Markievicz Gorman was the third occupant of the car. They trio had been driving around West Belfast for several hours. They failed to stop at the Vehicle Stop Point so the soldiers opened fire fearing that they could have been terrorists carrying explosives, Karen Reilly was killed The car occupants apart from breaking the law by joyriding must have seen the soldiers and RUC at the Vehicle Stop Point.
The Essay on Black Soldiers War Army Troops
The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War Historical Background Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U. S. , let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship. -Frederick Douglass The issues of emancipation and military service ...
It was claimed that the soldiers concocted a story to cover their tracks and the PC Gibson one of the RUC officers went along with the false tale. The soldiers including Lee Clegg continued to patrol the streets for a further eleven months. In January 1991 the DPP stamped the case “No Prosecution”. A Panorama program on “Shoot to kill” policy led to unrest in the local people of Belfast, PC Gibson changed his story, and the soldiers were arrested. Lee Clegg was tried in a Diplock court. A lower standard of evidence is required and with a case-hardened judge sitting without a jury, a conviction is much easier to obtain in a Diplock Court. It is therefore much more difficult to prove a convicted person innocent. Lee Clegg was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Dr Joe Hendron, the Social and Democratic and Labour party MP for West Belfast said at the time of the sentence that there was no place in Northern Ireland for the Parachute Regiment. What he failed to mention was that the countryside of Armagh was filled with posters of hooded IRA men, stating ”Beware of Snipers”, the Irish Nationalist probably felt they now had revenge on the Parachute Regiment for Bloody Sunday.
Was Lee guilty of murder? He did not go out that night with the intention to kill so there was no Mens Rea, and he was on active service doing his job as a serving soldier. On the conviction of Lee Clegg a public opinion on the mainland supported this argument that he was doing his job and that the joyriders were in fact the criminals by breaking the law. Newspapers took up the campaign. A political debate followed in the House of Commons to obtain a review for his release. In view of the fragile peace process the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland cited an appellation and said that the killing although unlawful did not warrant a mandatory sentence in view of the circumstances. Lord Bingham of Cornhill in 1998 stated that although he would not suggest a crime had not been committed he felt that Clegg could not be lumped with contract killers, armed robbers or persons who abuse and torture children. Julian Brazier Conservative MP for Canterbury said that the Lord Chief Justice was confusing an issue of wrongful conviction with one of sentencing. “Clegg was a straightforward injustice,” he declared. “He was not a murderer at all, he was in fact a soldier of good character”. In 1995 Lee Clegg was freed on licence to resume his army career at Catterick, North Yorkshire, sparking riots in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Appeals were made to the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords but were rejected. Clegg’s legal team managed to get a retrial in on the basis of forensic evidence that the fourth bullet went into the side of the car and not the back. Clegg continued to insist that he fired at the car because he felt it was a terrorist threat at the time. It is widely known that cars have been lethal weapons in terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland. The result of the retrial in 1999 was that Clegg was acquitted of the murder
The Term Paper on The Conquest Of Ireland
ENGLISH IMPERAIALISM UNDER HENRY II In 1155 Pope Adrian IV issued a significant bull that changed the history of Ireland and England forever. The papal bull issued gave Henry II, King of England (1154-1189), the right to conquer Ireland . Ireland has gained and lost as a result of English rule. It was rewarded with a stronger Church and a more centralized government. It lost some of its cultural ...
It is obvious that Clegg was not a murderer but a soldier doing his duty, but was the victim of public pressure and the fanatics that hate the Parachute Regiment because of Bloody Sunday. Public Pressure convicted him of the murder and Public pressure acquired his acquittal.
