HE has been accused of a list of horrific war crimes.

But former refugee Joseph Lissa, of Crosland Moor, has branded stories about his involvement in a series of atrocities in his homeland of Sierra Leone as ‘totally false’.

Lissa, a driving instructor, is accused of being a member of his former country’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

The RUF, which fought to overthrow the Sierra Leone government in the 1990s, was infamous for its bloodthirsty tactics including the mass murder and rape of entire villages.

It is claimed that Lissa was a sergeant in the RUF.

But after several appeals a top judge allowed Lissa to remain in the UK.

Lord Bannatyne said the Home Office’s delay in deporting him had reduced the grounds for returning him to Sierra Leone.

The Home Office believed there were serious grounds to believe Lissa had ‘voluntarily participated in killings and rape’.

But Lissa, 31, was able to assemble another case against the Home Office’s decision to deport him after he married a British citizen and fathered a child in Huddersfield.