15 April 1999 Edition
Clegg defence cost £1 million
The British Ministry of Defence spent over £1 million defending Paratrooper Lee Clegg, it has emerged.
The public money did not include the cost of Clegg's original trial, in which he was convicted of murdering Karen Reilly in 1993 nor his retrial, which ran from November last year until February this year.
The final insult for the families of Karen Reilly and Martin Peake came in March, when in summing up after Clegg's retrial, Diplock Judge Kerr labelled the paratrooper's evidence a ``farrago of untruths and impossible claims'' yet went on to acquit him.
The revelation that the British Ministry of Defence footed the bill, of £1,044,401.14p, for Clegg's defence has added insult to injury.
``With the British paying such a large amount to have Clegg acquitted, particularly funding the sophisticated technology used in the computer simulations that finally `proved' Clegg was `innocent', it is clear they were prepared to go to the limits to ensure nobody would be held accountable for the two killings,'' an angry Michael Ferguson, Sinn Féin councillor for Poleglass, told An Phoblacht.
The public money did not include the cost of Clegg's original trial, in which he was convicted of murdering Karen Reilly in 1993 nor his retrial, which ran from November last year until February this year.
The final insult for the families of Karen Reilly and Martin Peake came in March, when in summing up after Clegg's retrial, Diplock Judge Kerr labelled the paratrooper's evidence a ``farrago of untruths and impossible claims'' yet went on to acquit him.
The revelation that the British Ministry of Defence footed the bill, of £1,044,401.14p, for Clegg's defence has added insult to injury.
``With the British paying such a large amount to have Clegg acquitted, particularly funding the sophisticated technology used in the computer simulations that finally `proved' Clegg was `innocent', it is clear they were prepared to go to the limits to ensure nobody would be held accountable for the two killings,'' an angry Michael Ferguson, Sinn Féin councillor for Poleglass, told An Phoblacht.