17 years after killing two joyriders, Lee Clegg is back on the front line

Now a sergeant, Lee Clegg will be deployed to southern Afghanistan as a combat medic with the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment next year.

His tasks will include rescuing and treating comrades wounded in battle against the Taliban.

Sergeant Clegg was convicted in 1993 over the shooting of two teenage joyriders killed as they tried to speed through an Army checkpoint.

But the case caused outrage, with the Government accused of making the soldier a political scapegoat to appease the IRA.

Many in the Army believed he was simply doing his job in a dangerous and pressurised environment.

Sergeant Clegg was released and eventually exonerated following a campaign spearheaded by the Daily Mail - and supported by more than 1.5million readers who signed a petition.

The Mail can reveal that despite the controversy, Sergeant Clegg, 38, has recently been awarded the Army's coveted Long Service and Good Conduct medal, given to soldiers who have clocked up 15 years of irreproachable service to the Crown.

Army chiefs debated his award at the highest level, with some commanders fearing that official recognition for such a controversial figure - whose release from jail in 1995 sparked rioting across Ulster - could still inflame sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland.

But the head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, finally declared that Sergeant Clegg was entitled to the medal, saying simply: "He has earned it, and he must have it."

An Army insider told the Mail: "Clegg has kept his head down and got on with the job. Despite all that happened he's got a clean record. He's well-respected within the Paras. Only good soldiers make it to sergeant.

"This will be his first time back on operations since Northern Ireland all those years ago. He's very keen to go, like the rest of his blokes."

Lee Clegg, then a young private, was one of eight Paratroopers who opened fire on a stolen car speeding towards their checkpoint on a Belfast street one night in September 1990 - at the height of IRA violence.

Karen Reilly, 18, and 17-year-old Martin Peake were shot dead. It transpired that they were joyriders rather than terrorists.

Sergeant Clegg was accused of murder because prosecutors claimed one of the four shots he fired was aimed through the car's rear windscreen after the car had passed him - and therefore no longer posed a threat to him.

He was jailed for life in 1993 but was eventually released on licence in June 1995 after four years in custody.

New forensic evidence emerged undermining claims that he fired the fatal shots, or that he aimed at the receding car. Sergeant Clegg was cleared at a retrial in 1998, although it took him another two years to overturn a lesser conviction for assault and finally clear his name. He was married for the second time in 2002, to police officer Julie Scott, but the marriage broke up and she emigrated to Canada with their daughter Stephanie.

The British Army stood by him, allowing him to resume his career on his release. Sergeant Clegg served for some years as a physical training instructor for the Paras, and has retrained as a combat medic.

His unit, 2 Para, is training in Wales prior to deployment to Afghanistan next summer where they expect to face intense combat.

Although he will serve as a medic, he remains a fully-trained Para, and will carry an SA80 assault rifle to defend himself in combat zones.

Sergeant Clegg's solicitor, Simon McKay, of Leeds based McKay Law, revealed yesterday that the soldier is still fighting through the courts, seeking an estimated £400,000 compensation for his years in custody.