A PARATROOPER cleared of murdering two teenagers in Belfast in 1990 should not be allowed to serve in Afghanistan, a victims' group said last night.

Mark Thompson, from Relatives for Justice, said he was outraged after the Army admitted it may send the soldier to the war zone next year.

Sergeant Lee Clegg, who was stationed at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, was a private in the regiment when he fired at a stolen car that drove through an Army checkpoint on the Glen Road, in west Belfast.

Mr Thompson said: "It is an insult to have people like him there.

"Those countries need to establish their own legislative framework and at the head of that needs to be human rights.

"It is a contradiction to send people like him."

Martin Peake, 17, who was driving the car, and Karen Reilly, 18, died.

Sgt Clegg has said he fired because he feared a terrorist attack, but was accused of using excessive force and firing a fourth shot into the back of the car when it no longer endangered him or colleagues.

He was convicted of murder and imprisoned for life in 1993.

Freed on licence two years later, a retrial cleared him in 1999.

The following year, a wounding conviction was overturned.

An Army spokesman said: "We do not comment on individual cases, but his regiment is going to Afghanistan in April or May."