Boss: Rather hire cons than heroes (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Boss: Rather hire cons than heroes

4:29pm Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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A company boss has provoked outrage after refusing a request to employ former troops, saying that he would rather recruit paedophiles.

Karl Winn, 60, said he would hire ex-drug dealers, convicts and child molesters ahead of ex-military personnel because they had been held accountable for their actions.

His comments were in response to an email from Forces Recruitment Services which helps find jobs for ex-soldiers.

The former social worker, who employs 16 people at his firm Webeurope net design in Taunton, Somerset, said he stood by his ban on hiring anybody in the pay of the British Government.

In a statement, his firm said that emails were exchanged between Mr Winn and Graham Brown, the managing director of Forces Recruitment Services Ltd, on March 5 and 9 as part of the Hire-a-Hero campaign.

The statement said: "In those emails 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.

"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'.

"The reality from the north of Ireland, to Afghanistan and Iraq, is that the perpetrators of such atrocities will always be free to get on with their lives, safe in the knowledge that the policy of the British Government is to ensure their protection from prosecution."

Mr Brown told Mr Winn, whose office is near the HQ of 40 Commando, in an email that he was "absolutely staggered" and that his views "simply beggar belief".