A serving Abingdon-based soldier yesterday used an anti-war demonstration to condemn the war in Afghanistan as an “illegal occupation”.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, who is facing a court martial for refusing to return to the country, become one of the first serving soldiers to attend an anti-war demonstration since the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.

He used the occasion to call for the withdrawal of British troops.

The 27-year-old, of 4 Logistic Support Regiment, the Royal Logistic Corps based at Dalton Barracks, has landed himself in a military court for alleged desertion.

Yesterday he joined thousands of protesters to urge the Government to bring British troops home from Afghanistan today.

L/Cpl Glenton said he had witnessed sights during his time in Afghanistan that forced him to question the morality of his role.

He cited the deaths of 14 servicemen killed in 2006, when an RAF Nimrod spy plane exploded after a mid-air fuel leak, as a major reason for his change of heart.

He was cheered on by a crowd of more than 5,000 Stop The War Coalition protesters packed into London's Trafalgar Square.

The country's oldest anti-war demonstrator, Londoner Hetty Bower, 104, joined the protest.

Married L/Cpl Glenton told the crowd: "I'm here today to make a stand beside you because I believe great wrongs have been perpetrated in Afghanistan.

"I cannot, in good conscience, be part of them. I'm bound by law and moral duty to try and stop them.

"I'm a soldier and I belong to the profession of arms. I expected to go to war but I also expected that the need to defend this country's interests would be legal and justifiable. I don't think this is too much to ask.

"It's now apparent that the conflict is neither of these and that's why I must make this stand."

A total of 222 British troops have died since operations in Afghanistan began.

The soldier is to be charged for alleged desertion at a court martial on November 2 after going absent without leave in 2007.

If convicted, he faces two years in prison.

He said: "The occupation in Afghanistan is at best dubious in terms of legality and morality.

"I can't be involved in it on that basis and, not only that, I am also bound to try and stop it, try and change things. “That's the law, the occupation of a country like that, regime change, these things are all illegal.

"People keep telling me I'm brave but I don't feel brave at all — I feel fairly terrified. It's not going to stop me, I'm going to keep going.

"I won't be silenced. I'll keep talking and doing what I think is right. I have to or I'll have to live with this forever if I don't."