The Way this Legal Case of a Former Soldier Regarding Bloody Sunday Ended in Not Guilty Verdict
Sunday 30 January 1972 remains one of the most fatal – and momentous – days throughout thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland.
Throughout the area where events unfolded – the memories of Bloody Sunday are displayed on the walls and embedded in public consciousness.
A protest demonstration was conducted on a chilly yet clear afternoon in Derry.
The demonstration was challenging the practice of detention without trial – holding suspects without trial – which had been put in place in response to an extended period of violence.
Military personnel from the elite army unit killed multiple civilians in the Bogside area – which was, and still is, a predominantly republican area.
One image became especially iconic.
Pictures showed a clergyman, the priest, waving a stained with blood cloth as he tried to defend a assembly carrying a youth, Jackie Duddy, who had been mortally injured.
News camera operators recorded much footage on the day.
Documented accounts contains the priest telling a media representative that soldiers "gave the impression they would fire in all directions" and he was "absolutely certain" that there was no provocation for the discharge of weapons.
The narrative of the incident was disputed by the initial investigation.
The first investigation found the military had been fired upon initially.
In the peace process, Tony Blair's government established a new investigation, after campaigning by surviving kin, who said the initial inquiry had been a inadequate investigation.
That year, the conclusion by Lord Saville said that overall, the soldiers had discharged weapons initially and that not one of the victims had posed any threat.
At that time Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, apologised in the House of Commons – stating killings were "improper and unjustifiable."
The police commenced examine the incident.
One former paratrooper, identified as Soldier F, was charged for murder.
He was charged concerning the fatalities of the first individual, in his twenties, and twenty-six-year-old the second individual.
Soldier F was further implicated of seeking to harm several people, Joseph Friel, more people, Michael Quinn, and an unnamed civilian.
Remains a judicial decision protecting the soldier's privacy, which his legal team have argued is essential because he is at risk of attack.
He stated to the investigation that he had solely shot at people who were armed.
This assertion was dismissed in the concluding document.
Information from the inquiry would not be used immediately as testimony in the criminal process.
In court, the defendant was screened from view behind a blue curtain.
He spoke for the first time in the hearing at a proceeding in December 2024, to respond "not guilty" when the allegations were put to him.
Family members of the deceased on that day travelled from the city to Belfast Crown Court each day of the case.
John Kelly, whose brother Michael was fatally wounded, said they always knew that listening to the proceedings would be difficult.
"I can see the events in my recollection," John said, as we examined the primary sites discussed in the proceedings – from the street, where the victim was fatally wounded, to the nearby the courtyard, where the individual and William McKinney were fatally wounded.
"It returns me to my position that day.
"I helped to carry my brother and lay him in the ambulance.
"I experienced again every moment during the testimony.
"Despite enduring everything – it's still meaningful for me."