Reaction to not guilty verdict in Bloody Sunday murder trial

Chris Page
BBC News Ireland correspondent

The case of R v Soldier F was one of the most controversial, significant and high-profile trials over killings from the conflict in Northern Ireland.

The fatal shootings of 13 people by the Army on Bloody Sunday was one of the most consequential days during 30 years of violence known as the Troubles.

Mr Justice Lynch’s remarks about what happened on that January afternoon were scathing.

He said troops had “lost all sense of military discipline”, as they shot unarmed civilians “in the back…as they were fleeing from them, on the streets of a British city”.

Furthermore, the judge said he had no doubt “the soldiers who opened fire did so with the intention to kill” – and they “did not act in lawful self-defence”.

Image source, Reuters

However, he explained that the burden of proof in criminal cases lay with the prosecution – they had to prove who fired the shots.

Therefore, the whole case rested on the evidence which came from two statements given by two other former soldiers – G and H – to the initial investigations in 1972.

Bereaved families who had pushed for a prosecution feel vindicated, to a degree, by the judge’s remarks about the Parachute Regiment’s actions that day.

Representatives of veterans are welcoming the acquittal – and re-emphasising that paramilitaries killed 90% of the people who died during the Troubles.

Read more here.