'I'll hire paedophiles before soldiers'
Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 11:00

THE boss of a Westcountry company was vilified yesterday after claiming he would prefer to employ a convicted paedophile rather than a former serviceman.

Karl Winn, founder of Taunton-based design company Webeurope, has a blanket ban on former armed forces personnel.

He made the comment in correspondence to Forces Recruitment Services (FRS) which asked if he would consider taking on ex-soldiers. Mr Winn, 60, replied: "Personally, I'd rather recruit ex-drug dealers, convicts and even child molesters rather than consider anybody who has been in the pay of the British Government.

"Anybody who has been in the pay of such a military force, and by their silence and complicity has condoned such illegal and immoral actions while accepting a monthly bloodstained pay packet, certainly won't be considered for employment by us.

"The reality for the families of their victims is that there will never be any justice, and there never will be any closure, for the loss of a son, a husband, a child, or a family member who has fallen victim to British military personnel who are going beyond 'just doing their job'.


"Please remove us from your e-mail list. Regards, Karl."

Mr Winn's business in Taunton is less than three miles from the base of 40 Commando Royal Marines. His staff were later seen removing corporate signs from outside his office, which employs 16 people.

FRS managing director Graham Brown was "staggered" by Mr Winn's attitude, which he said "simply beggared belief".

"I wonder if the Royal Marine detachment based in Taunton would share your belief," he told Mr Winn in an e-mail.

The Sun broke the story yesterday and was quickly followed up by other national newspapers. Mr Winn was vilified in comments posted by the public on the papers' websites.

Mr Winn later released a statement saying: "Ex-paedophiles and drug addicts who have been charged and paid the price for their actions deserve a chance to get on with their lives. In my opinion, military personnel who have got away with murder do not."

On his company website yesterday, Mr Winn released further extracts from his conversation with FRS. It said: "In those e-mails, Karl Winn stated that his personal preference would be to offer employment even to ex-offenders, rather than British military personnel because at least the former had been investigated and bought before the courts and held accountable for their actions."

It went on: "We are not talking about people who do their duty. Nobody is going to condemn any serviceman or woman for that. What I'm referring to is the unwillingness of far too many servicemen and women to give evidence against those who commit criminal offences.

"I'm not talking about incidents that happen in the heat of battle against armed combatants, but actions that by any standard amount to murder, or other such crimes against a civilian population."

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