Soldier F Bloody Sunday Trial Ends in Acquittal

The long-running trial of Soldier F for his alleged conduct on Bloody Sunday ended yesterday with his acquittal. The presiding Judge, Mr. Justice Lynch said (as quoted in this BBC article)

“…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”. 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. The statements, which were read to the court, were the only pieces of evidence which specifically said that Soldier F had fired his rifle. The judge said that Soldiers G and H had been found to be “serially untruthful” in their accounts of Bloody Sunday – and therefore, their statements could not be used to prove the case against Soldier F.”

Reaction to the verdict has been mixed.

Unionist politicians have slammed the prosecution as a ‘show-trial’ with Doug Beattie saying  (in this Newsletter article) saying

“This is not the verdict the families would have wanted, but it has been clear from the very start that the evidence, hearsay statements from two soldiers present at the time without legal representation, would never achieve the guilty verdict the families so desperately wanted…More money and time have been expended on Bloody Sunday than any other incidents during the Troubles, and it is now time to direct our attention to those who directed terrorism on that day in Londonderry, and beyond, and set the conditions for this awful incident.”

The families themselves were bitterly disappointed with the ruling but attempted to take solace in the rationale the judge used to reach his conclusion as the Irish News records

“Speaking at the end of this chapter of his fight for truth and justice, William McKinney’s brother Mickey said the failure to bring anyone to book over the killings “lies with the British state” and assured the press soldier F “wasn’t declared innocent”. And despite the outcome, the veteran campaigner remained positive, saying: “The families and wounded and our supporters leave this courthouse with an incredible sense of pride in our achievements.”

The march of time means and the failure of this prosecution seem to indicate that any further attempts to hold anyone individually accountable for what occurred on Bloody Sunday are probably doomed to failure before they even begin. What it means for future legacy investigations remains to be seen.

Slugger Team

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