And not before time either!
Sgt Lee Clegg deployed to Afghanistan
By Tom Peterkin, Ireland Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:29am BST 13/09/2007
Lee Clegg, the paratrooper who was jailed for life following the shooting dead of two joyriders in Northern Ireland but was eventually exonerated, is to return to the front line for the first time since he was wrongly jailed.
The deployment of Sgt Clegg, who will serve as a medic in Afghanistan next summer with 2nd Bn The Parachute Regiment, comes 17 years after he was at the centre of a political storm following the deaths of two teenage joyriders.
Lee Clegg in 1995, soon after he was cleared and freed from jail
Sgt Clegg, 38, who was a private at the time, was one of eight paratroopers who opened fire on a stolen car speeding towards their checkpoint in Belfast in September 1990.
Karen Reilly, 18, and Martin Peake, 17, were shot dead as they tried to drive through the checkpoint.
The incident took place at the height of the IRA's violent campaign and Sgt Clegg, originally from Bradford, said he opened fire because he feared a terrorist attack.
His conviction and subsequent life sentence caused outrage. Many of his colleagues believed he was guilty only of doing his job in a difficult situation.
The Government was accused of using the paratrooper as a political pawn to appease the IRA during a delicate stage of the peace process.
Prosecutors accused Sgt Clegg of murder because they claimed one of the four shots he fired was aimed through the car's rear windscreen after the car had passed and when the occupants no longer posed a threat.
After four years in jail he was released in June 1995 after new evidence emerged that disputed claims that he fired the fatal shots or that he aimed at the car as it drove away. His release was met with rioting in Belfast.
He was cleared at a retrial in 1998 and two years later he finally overturned another conviction of assault.
The Army supported him and he has been working as a physical training instructor. He has been awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal given to soldiers who have served 15 years without a blemish on their record.
It is understood that Sgt Clegg is pursuing a claim compensation for the years he spent in jail. In 2001, West Yorkshire Police confirmed that he had applied to join the force but had been rejected.
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