They shoot joyriders, don't they

On Sunday evening, September 30th, 1990, the young squaddies of A-Company, 3rd battalion of the parachute regiment, set out from Woodburn police station in West Belfast on a routine patrol to arrest joyriders. They headed for the Upper Glen Road, at the top of the strongly republican Falls Road, which was well known as a favourite spot for joy riders. Here the 16 man joint army/police patrol split into four groups, positioning themselves along the road. The soldiers, including 21 year old Lee Clegg from Lidget Green, Bradford, got out of sight in the bushes whilst the RUC officers prepared to stop suspect vehicles.

Just before midnight auxiliary psychiatric nurse Eugene Brannigan missed his turning after dropping a friend at home. He stopped in the middle of the Glen Road to do a U-turn. There was no road block, no soldiers, no police. Suddenly, soldiers appeared "out of the bushes".

"What the fuck do you think you're doing" shouted one. Eugene tried to explain that he was turning around. The young soldier ordered him out of the car. Eugene asked if he could turn the car and park it on the road side.

"Yes, but if you make one wrong move I'll blow your fucking head off!"

As the soldiers dealt with Eugene, a stolen blue Astra appeared. At the wheel was 17 year old Martin Peake, In the back was 18 year old Karen Reilly. Teenager Markievicz Gorman made up the occupants. They trio had been driving around West Belfast for several hours.

PC R.W. Gibson stepped out into the road and flicked on his torch. As the car sped towards his position he became aware of gun fire all around him and he dived to the ground. He watched as the car sped down the middle of the road, sparks coming from the tailgate.

Privates Lee Clegg and Barry Aindow, and Lt Andrew Oliver had opened up on the car as it shot towards and passed them. Other soldiers further up the road, including Private Simon Cooper, fired at the car. In all 36 shots were fired, 19 hitting the car. Martin Peake was shot in the head and died instantly; Karen Reilly was shot 3 times in the back and died later.

Clearly realising they had acted hastily, the squaddies quickly moved to cover their tracks. PC Gibson was astonished to hear one shout to Aindow "Get down - you're it". Aindow lay on the floor and the other soldiers stamped on his leg. They were later to falsely claim that the car had struck Aindow.

Initially PC Gibson went along with the false tale. The soldiers were confident that there would be no repercussions. Clegg continued to patrol the streets of Belfast for another 11 months. A report from the DPP in January 1991 was marked "No prosecution".

The paras celebrated the deaths with a particularly sick montage erected in Palace Barracks. It was a ten foot mock-up of an Astra car with a papier mache head stuck in the drivers window. Red paint marked the fatal head wound; bullet holes riddled the car body. Pinned up besides the car was a poster which read:

"Vauxhall Astra - Built by robots, driven by joyriders, stopped by A Company".

However, local public disquiet at the circumstances of the killings led, in July 1991, to the inclusion of the events in a Panorama programme on the army's "Shoot to kill" policy. PC Gibson changed his original statement and now told the truth.

The following month Clegg and several other soldiers were arrested. Clegg was charged with murder, for shooting Karen Reilly in the back; Aindow with attempted murder and four others were charged with offences related to the cover up.

In July 1992, Clegg was convicted by a non-jury Diplock court and sentenced to life imprisonment. Clegg had claimed that the first 3 shots he fired were at the front windscreen of the car, the 4th at the side. In fact no shots had entered the front windscreen, 9 shots had entered the back. However, the first 3 shots he fired were judged to be lawfull, but the last, which was found to have entered the back of the car and killed Karen Reilly, was judged unlawful. Aindow got seven years, the others were aquitted.

Cleggs appeal in April 1994 was dismissed, but Aindows sentence was reduced to four years when a charge of malicious wounding was substituted.

In January 1995 Cleggs second appeal to the Law Lords was also dismissed. But by now a powerful campaign to get him released was underway, with top figures from the military, political and media establishments on board.

Immediately following the failure of the appeal, Lt General Napier Crockenden, the retired Parachute regiment general, met Max Hastings, the editor of the Daily Telegraph. Over drinks they discussed how the media could help gain Cleggs release. Following the meeting a remarkable media campaign began. In weeks the Daily Mail claimed to have collected a million signatures. Over 100 MP's called for Cleggs release, including Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe and the Home Secretary Michael Howard. The Telegraph & Argus joined the crusade enthusiastically.

Media reports now began to claim, quite untruthfully, that the Astra had "crashed through a roadblock". The subsequent faking of Aindows injuries was conveniently forgotten.

Clegg also began to claim, for the first time, that he thought the Astra might have contained "terrorists" rather than joyriders, clearly contradicting his own earlier statements and those of his colleagues. Indeed, on the 24th of January, as the campaign began in ernest, one of the other paras who was there that night told BBC Look North:

" Whether it was joyriders or terrorists is not the point. O.k., we probably knew it was joyriders. The point is that the car was being used as a lethal weapon."

The campaign caused outrage in Nationalist Belfast, where the hypocrisy surrounding Cleggs treatment stood in sharp contrast to the treatment republican activists could expect. Only one soldier serving in the north of Ireland had previously been convicted of murder: Private Ian Thain served only 26 months of a life sentence and was released in 1988 when he was welcomed back into the army. The writing was on the wall.

In March 1995 Clegg was visited in Wakefield prison by his estranged 22 year old wife Amanda and their 3 year old son Joshua. Campaigners claimed new forensic evidence showed Cleggs bullet was not responsible for Karen Reilly's death. The Prison Authorities wrote to Clegg asking him if he preferred to serve his sentence in England as oppose to Northern Ireland - a remarkable offer denied republican prisoners. Clegg opted for England, which meant juristication passed from Patrick Mayhew to Michael Howard and also meant he was immediately eligible for an appeal for release on license. In July Howard ordered Cleggs release, after serving just 2 and a half years.

Clegg returned straight to Army duty, where, within a month, he was promoted to Lance Corporal and became a physical fitness instructor at Catterick camp.

The alleged new forensic evidence was enough for Patrick Mayhew to refer the case for a third appeal to the Appeal Court in Belfast, where it was heard last month and which led to the quashing of his conviction on Friday.