Army chiefs have awarded a second George Medal to an Oxfordshire bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan last year.

Warrant Officer Class 2 Gary O'Donnell, 40, was killed in September while trying to make safe a Taliban explosive device in Helmand Province.

Father-of-four WO O’Donnell, of the 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, part of the Royal Logisitic Corps, was based at Vauxhall Barracks, Didcot.

He had won the George Medal — awarded for extreme bravery — after making safe similar devices in southern Iraq in 2006.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said WO O'Donnell, from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, had been awarded a second, posthumous George Medal for the work he was doing when he died.

Army officials said WO O'Donnell was approaching a booby-trapped bomb to try to clear a path for fellow soldiers when it detonated and killed him.

He had been commanding a team of specialist bomb disposal engineers and was nearing the end of his six month tour of duty.

Following his death, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Wilson, Commander of the Joint Force Engineer Group, said WO O'Donnell was an "amazing man".

Lieutenant Colonel Wilson added: "The danger to his own life rarely seemed to affect him. Men of this calibre are extremely rare."