Para Lee Clegg wrongly jailed over Belfast shooting returns to frontline as Afghanistan medic

A Paratrooper who was wrongly jailed for killing two joyriders at a Northern Ireland Army checkpoint 18 years ago has returned to the frontline in Afghanistan.

Sergeant Lee Clegg is serving as a combat medic with the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment in the fierce fighting zone of Helmand Province.

The former corporal has repeatedly braved Taliban fire to rescue wounded soldiers and recover dead bodies while in the country.

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

He was among eight soldiers who opened fire on the stolen speeding car.

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 not to blame and simply doing his job in a dangerous and pressurised environment.

Sergeant Clegg was released and eventually exonerated in 1998 following a campaign spearheaded by the Daily Mail - and supported by more than 1.5 million readers who signed a petition.

The Mail revealed last year that despite the controversy, Sergeant Clegg, 38, had 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.

General Sir Antony Walker, former Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, told The Sun: ‘Fifteen years ago he was in a prison cell serving a life sentence.

‘Today - as sergeant Clegg - he’s back at the sharp end of the war, providing essential support to soldiers of his battalion who are wounded in action.’

Lee Clegg (right) pictured arriving at his retrial in the Belfast High Court in 1998 was wrongly jailed for the murder of joyriders Karen Reilly (left) and Martin Peake

Karen Reilly, 18, and 17-year-old Martin Peake were shot dead as they sped through a checkpoint. 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 passing car.

Sergeant Clegg, who lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire, was cleared at a retrial in 1998, although it took him another two years to overturn a lesser conviction for assault and front line finally clear his name.

Although he now serves as a medic, he remains a fully-trained Para, and carries an SA80 assault rifle to defend himself in combat zones.

His unit, 2 Para, had been in Wales prior to being deployed to Afghanistan.

Since being in the country, the regiment has had 10 men killed and dozens wounded from enemy fire.

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