A Catholic former soldier was threatened by a lance corporal later jailed for storing weapons for neo-Nazi group Combat 18 and loyalist paramilitaries, a fair employment tribunal heard today.
Mr Patrick Murphy (33), a former member of the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR), told the tribunal that when he was transferred to Ballykinler army camp in 1999 Lance Cpl William Thompson openly abused him in front of other soldiers.
"He didn't care who saw him. He would have left his locker open with his Combat 18 stuff hanging in his locker and photographs of him Nazi saluting and UVF T-shirts on him," he said.
Thompson, who was later jailed in April 2001 for storing weapons for the far right group and the UVF and UFF, was given an exemplary discharge from the RIR in May 1999.
Mr Murphy has taken the Ministry of Defence to a tribunal alleging he was subjected to a campaign of constant sectarian abuse after he rejoined the regiment in 1997.
He broke down in tears as he described how he had tried to kill himself on October 20th, 1998, claiming that senior officers had not taken his claims seriously. On October 9th, 1998, he approached his commanding officer Maj Colin Marks to request a transfer.
The tribunal was told that on his report Maj Marks wrote: "I told Private Murphy to stop telling untruths about his personal life and to get a grip".
Three days later Mr Murphy approached his company medical officer and told him he was suicidal. "He was highly abrupt the way he got on with me, he didn't give a damn," he told the Belfast tribunal.
PA