British army paratrooper Mr Lee Clegg was back in a Belfast court yesterday for the opening of his appeal against a four-year jail sentence, arising out of the fatal shooting of two teenagers in a stolen car in 1990.
Last March, Mr Clegg (32) was cleared at a retrial of murdering Ms Karen Reilly but convicted of attempting to wound Mr Martin Peake, who also died when soldiers opened fire on a stolen car on Glen Road in west Belfast.
Mr Clegg was originally convicted in 1993 but was granted a retrial after his legal team presented a dossier of fresh ballistic evidence.
Mr Clegg has been free on licence since July 1995, and is now back in the Parachute Regiment.
Yesterday, Mr Clegg's defence counsel argued that his client had been subjected to double jeopardy.
He referred to the case of a man acquitted of rape, where later evidence suggested the man was guilty but he could not be retried because of double jeopardy.
"You may think that is highly unsatisfactory," he told the appeal judges. "But it is the law today".
The appeal, which is being heard by the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Carswell, Lord Justice Nicholson and Mr Justice Gillen, is expected to last several days.