**A former US soldier convicted of rape and murder while serving in Iraq will spend life in prison, a judge in the US state of Kentucky has confirmed.**Steven Green, 24, is to serve five consecutive life sentences for raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family near Baghdad in 2006.
The jury in Kentucky could not agree unanimously on his punishment and he was spared the death penalty.
Four other soldiers are serving time for their roles in the crime.
Their sentences range between five and 110 years.
Green was considered the ringleader.
Judge Thomas Russell confirmed Green would serve five consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole.
Three of the soldiers had admitted holding down Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, raping her and then killing her, her parents and her younger sister at the family’s home in Mahmudiya before torching the building.
Green was discharged from the 101st Airborne Division before the case came to light.
He was the first ex-soldier to be charged under a US law that allows prosecution for crimes committed overseas.