A widow has embarked upon a new battle for compensation after her husband died in a gang beating in 1998. Anne-Marie McCallion has taken her case to the High Court, despite previous refusal on the grounds of her late husband’s criminal record.

Peter McCallion was convicted in the 1970s for participating in an IRA ambush on an army patrol in Londonderry, and subsequently released. He was involved in a fight in 1998, and died from his severe injuries.

The dispute is centred on the interpretation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The family’s legal team claims that the “prohibition of discrimination or punishment on the basis of a parent’s activities” is in breach (BBC News, 2009).