The mother of the last British soldier shot dead in the North has spoken of her pain at seeing her son's killers walk free after three years in jail.
Ms Rita Restorick admitted having doubts that the peace process would be helped by the early release of paramilitary prisoners. However, she said her family still hoped the development would help ensure a permanent end to the conflict.
The final phase of releases under the terms of the Belfast Agreement was completed last Friday when 86 men were freed. Lance-Bombadier Stephen Restorick was shot dead at an army checkpoint in Bessbrook, south Armagh, in February 1997. The four-man team behind the attack and other killings was arrested two months later.
Last year, Bernard McGinn of Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, was jailed for life for the murder and for killing two other British soldiers. However the trial heard his co-accused, Michael Caraher, was the man who actually pulled the trigger on Lance-Bombadier Restorick and the other RUC and British army victims.
McGinn received sentences totalling 490 years for a range offences, including making the Canary Wharf bomb which ended the first Provisional IRA ceasefire in 1996 and the 1992 Baltic Exchange bomb.
Speaking yesterday on BBC Radio Ulster, Ms Restorick said seeing the killers of her son walk free from the Maze was a painful experience. "It is very difficult for us, just the same as it is for other victims' families.
"We just hope that it will help the peace process. It is very doubtful at times whether it will. But we choose to hope that it will. I think I have treated it in a rather detached way up to now, but actually seeing the men released, it just brings all the emotion back again and it is very difficult."
Ms Restorick campaigned in support of the peace process following her son's death and produced a book earlier this year about her experience.
A total of 428 republican and loyalist prisoners were freed early over a two-year period. Only 14 prisoners remain in the Maze, which is to close later this year.