THE CLEGG CASE: FOUR YEARS IN CUSTODY
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Your support makes all the difference.Lee Clegg has spent four years in custody since an Army patrol of 16 men fired 36 bullets at a stolen car that was speeding through a checkpoint in Belfast.
This is the timetable:
30 September, 1990: teenage driver Martin Peake and passenger Karen Reilly die in shooting by Parachute Regiment patrol at checkpoint in Glen Road, West Belfast.
February 1991: Clegg arrested in spite of file at RUC headquarters being marked "no prosecution".
June 1993: trial judge found Clegg's first three shots were fired to protect a fellow soldier, but the fourth, that killed Ms Reilly, was "an excessive use of force" because the car and danger had passed. Clegg sentenced to life for her murder and convicted of attempting to murder Martin Peake. Private Barry Aindow jailed for seven years for attempted murder of Peake.
April 1994: Sir Brian Hutton, Northern Ireland's Lord Chief Justice, says law had treated Clegg unfairly but rejects appeal. Aindow freed after conviction cut to malicious wounding.
April 1994: Army redrafts its controversial "yellow card" rules of engagement in light of the Clegg appeal hearing.
18 October, 1994: Clegg's appeal to the House of Lords.
19 January, 1995: Lords throw out appeal. Public opinion galvanised by tabloid press over alleged miscarriage of justice.
27 January,1995: One million signatures collected for Clegg's release. Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, links campaign to freedom issue for IRA prisoners.
20 February, 1995: Clegg served with papers for his discharge.
13 March, 1995: Sir Patrick Mayhew refers case to a review board in view of "exceptional mitigating" factors.
6 June, 1995: Northern Ireland's life sentence review board urged to treat case as manslaughter, not murder.
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