Betrayed: Iraq hero is placed behind criminals in queue for a home

and asylum seekers.

Fighting on the hellish battlefields of Iraq, he risked his life for his country every day. But when Private Joe MacDonald asked his local authority to help find his young family a house, his sacrifice counted for nothing.

He first met with a point-blank refusal, followed by the offer of nothing more than a room in a hostel for himself, his wife and three young children.

The council, which organises the provision of social housing through housing associations, put his case behind the unemployed, single mothers, criminals freed from prison and asylum seekers.