The only British soldier ever charged in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre has been found not guilty of all counts of murder and attempted murder, in a ruling handed down in a Northern Ireland court.
Judge Patrick Lynch delivered his verdict in Belfast Crown Court, in a decision about whether the former paratrooper — identified only as Soldier F — committed murder and attempted murder of 13 unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland, in the deadliest shooting of the three decades of sectarian violence known as "The Troubles."
The British government and then-prime minister David Cameron in 2010 apologised for the "unjustified and unjustifiable" killings, when members of a British army regiment opened fire in the mainly Irish nationalist city of Londonderry in one of the defining moments of Northern Ireland's recent history.
But all prior efforts to prosecute soldiers have failed.
Prosecutors said earlier that the lance corporal, who had not been named to protect him from retaliation, killed two people and tried to kill five others when he and other troops fired at fleeing unarmed civilians on January 20, 1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
Soldier F had pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder for the deaths of James Wray, 22, and William McKinney, 27, and five counts of attempted murder for the shootings of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon, Patrick O'Donnell, and for opening fire at unarmed civilians.
In addition to the 13 people killed in the shootings, another 15 were injured in an event that has come to symbolise the conflict between mainly Catholic supporters of a united Ireland and predominantly Protestant forces that wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
While the violence largely ended with the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, tensions remain.
Families of civilians killed continue to press for justice, while supporters of army veterans complain that their losses have been downplayed and that they have been unfairly targeted in investigations.
Soldier F, who was shrouded from view in court by a curtain, did not testify in his defence, and his lawyer presented no evidence.
The soldier told police during a 2016 interview that he had no "reliable recollection" of the events that day but was sure he had properly discharged his duties as a soldier.
Defence lawyer Mark Mulholland attacked the prosecution's case as "fundamentally flawed and weak" for relying on soldiers he dubbed "fabricators and liars," and the fading memories of survivors who scrambled to avoid live gunfire that some mistakenly thought were rounds of rubber bullets.
Surviving witnesses spoke of the confusion, chaos and terror as soldiers opened fire and bodies began falling after a large civil rights march through the city.
The prosecution relied on statements by two of Soldier F's comrades — Soldier G, who is dead, and Soldier H, who refused to testify. The defence tried unsuccessfully to exclude the hearsay statements because they could not be cross-examined.
Prosecutor Louis Mably argued that the soldiers, without justification, had all opened fire, intending to kill, and thus shared responsibility for the casualties.
The killings were a source of shame for a British government that had initially claimed that members of a parachute regiment fired in self-defence after being attacked by gunmen and people hurling fuel bombs.
A formal inquiry cleared the troops of responsibility, but a subsequent and lengthier review in 2010 found soldiers shot unarmed civilians fleeing and then lied in a cover-up that lasted decades.
The 2010 findings cleared the way for the eventual prosecution of Soldier F, though delays and setbacks kept it from coming to trial until last month.
AP/Reuters
