- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday June 12 2001 17.01 BST
Private Wayne King, 20, admitted the manslaughter of Glyne Agard, 34, in June last year, causing grievous bodily harm to Gary Belgrave and one count of affray.
His colleague Private Thomas Myers, 20, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Mr Agard's brother Stephen, 33, and one count of affray.
The two men had been charged with murder and one count each of grievous bodily harm with intent on Stephen Agard and Gary Belgrave. The judge at Bristol crown court adjourned sentencing for reports to be prepared.
John Royce QC, prosecuting, said he accepted the pleas "without enthusiasm". The detective who led the investigation said he was satisfied there had been enough evidence to charge the men with murder for the "totally unprovoked" attack, which was allegedly preceded by a racist remark.
Relatives of the victims said they were angry, dismayed and disappointed by the verdicts.
Glyne Agard, a railway worker from Reading, died in the car park of the Reflections Club in Westbury on June 18 as a result of head injuries and the alcohol he had drunk. His friend Gary Belgrave suffered serious facial injuries including a fractured cheek in the attack.
Four soldiers from the Green Howards regiment, based at Warminster, were charged with murder when the trial began in May. But two weeks into the case, Mr Justice Steel directed the jury to acquit Private Marc Hunter, 18, and Lance Corporal David White, 23, of murder and violent disorder.
Private Hunter was also acquitted of two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent against Stephen Agard and Mr Belgrave.
Mr Royce told the jury yesterday that the prosecution had accepted the guilty pleas because of the complexity of the case. CCTV footage of the fight showed several people attacking the three black men, but witnesses disagreed about who was who on the grainy footage.
Mr Royce added: "The prosecution has reached this position without enthusiasm, but mindful of the considerable legal and factual difficulties in this case. The effect of all this is that Wayne King accepts responsibility for the death of Glyne Agard, by pleading guilty to manslaughter."
Outside the court Detective Superintendent Gary Chatfield, of Wiltshire police, said: "I'm satisfied, particularly for the family who have gone through a tremendous ordeal in the last 12 months... A man has been convicted of causing the death of their son."
But he added: "I was satisfied and I am still satisfied that the evidence was sufficient to charge those four men with the counts as they appeared before the court."
Asked if the police still viewed the attack as racist, he said: "A good witness, a doorman, gave evidence that racial abuse was used. It is still my belief that that is what happened."
In a statement read outside the court by a friend, Glyne Agard's mother, Velma, and father, Randolph, said: "The family of Stephen and Glyne Agard are angry and dismayed at the outcome of this case. We feel that justice has not been done.
"It is impossible to describe the torture which our family has suffered over the past 12 months. Glyne was a dearly loved son, brother and friend to all those who knew him."
Mr Belgrave's mother, Marilyn, said: "We are very disappointed with the verdicts that have been reached. They do not reflect the gravity of the brutal attack in which Glyne was killed and has left both Stephen and Gary in a shocked, traumatic and distressed state. The attack was unprovoked, senseless and racially motivated."
Glyne Agard, a ticket collector with Thames Trains, was described by his family and long term girlfriend as a gentle man who would not hurt a fly.
He had spent the early evening of June 17 watching England's victory over Germany at Euro 2000, before going to Reflections.
King and Myers, who had been friends since they joined the Green Howards around three years ago, had also been watching the game at a Naafi bar in Warminster. King said he had drunk 15 pints of lager.
The row began when Myers, an army boxer, challenged Stephen Agard after a drunk teenager wrongly claimed he had assaulted her.
The club's doormen intervened and one alleged that he heard Myers say: "We will give that black bastard a good kicking," as he made his way to the car park. Myers denied the comment. Minutes later King, from Middlesbrough, headbutted Glyne Agard and punched him twice in the face.
He told the jury: "I am gutted by the whole thing because no matter which way you look at it the blame can always be put on me, because indirectly or directly Glyne's death is my fault, and if I reacted differently he'd probably still be alive now and nobody would be here."
Myers, of Hartlepool, admitted punching Stephen Agard, who he said he thought was going to attack him. But he denied being involved in any other part of the fight or attacking Glyne Agard.
