A FORMER soldier who claims terrorists forced him to take part in a £1m robbery has spoken about his prison ordeal in Northern Ireland.

Keith Winward, from Middlesbrough, was jailed for 15 years in 1997 after being convicted of being the inside man in Ulster's biggest armed robbery.

He had his sentence cut short under the terms of the Good Friday agreement last month and has now returned to rebuild his life in the North-East, with a vow to clear his name.

And the 39-year-old has also spoken for the first time about his life as a former British soldier in the Northern Ireland prison system.

Mr Winward was convicted by a jury-free Diplock court after a judge decided he had been part of a paramilitary gang which robbed £1m from a Securicor van. But he said he only handed the money over because masked gunmen held his wife Janice and their son Dale hostage.

While he was in several Ulster prisons, including the Maze, he was singled out for attacks by both loyalist and republican terrorists.

"It never crossed my mind to join a paramilitary group in prison because, as an ex-soldier, I swore an oath of allegiance to the Queen, not to terrorist organisations," he said.

"I was put on the Republican wing in Maghaberry prison and I was visited by an INLA chief who told me I had 24 hours to get off the wing or die.

"They finally took me off the wing after 18 hours but, as I walked off it, I had hot tea thrown at me."

Mr Winward says he is still coming to terms with life on the outside, but admits it's "brilliant" to be home.

He is looking for a job. He did a lot of landscape gardening while in prison, and still hopes to prove his innocence.

"I will carry on the fight to clear my name because that, and the thought of being with my family again, is what kept me going in prison," he said.

Mr Winward's solicitor, Scott Taylor, of Watson Woodhouse in Teesside, believes his case should come before the Court of Appeal or the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

"The evidence is so lacking that if this case had been tried in England it would not have got passed the committal stage," he said.

"And even if it had, I am confident no jury would have returned a guilty verdict.