Soldier F found not guilty of murders on Bloody Sunday

By Jonathan McCambridge and Rebecca Black, PA

A former paratrooper known as Soldier F has been found not guilty of committing two murders and five attempted murders on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.

Delivering his judgment at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell “well short” of what was required for conviction.

However, the judge said that members of the Parachute Regiment had shot dead unarmed civilians, and those involved should “hang their heads in shame”.

In the packed public gallery at court 12, gathered relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims gave no visible response as the veteran was found not guilty on all counts.

There was also no reaction from those in the public gallery supporting the former paratrooper.

Soldier F had been accused of the murders of James Wray and William McKinney on Bloody Sunday, regarded as one of the darkest days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The veteran had also been accused of attempting to murder Michael Quinn, Patrick O’Donnell, Joseph Friel, Joe Mahon and an unknown person.

Thirteen people were killed when members of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on a civil rights demonstration in the city.

The non-jury trial heard evidence across four weeks which included statements by two of Soldier F’s colleagues.

Soldier F was present at Belfast Crown Court for each day of the trial with his identify concealed behind a curtain in the court room.

Relatives of the men killed and supporters also attended each day of the trial.

Delivering his judgment, Judge Lynch said on Bloody Sunday a number of members of the Parachute Regiment entered Glenfada Park North in Derry and started firing at unarmed civilians at a distance of 50 metres or less.

He said this resulted in two murders and a number of people being unlawfully wounded.

The judge said: “They had totally lost all sense of military discipline. They were members of a regiment formed in 1942 at the behest of prime minister Churchill and had a proud record in World War Two.”

He added: “Those who fought valiantly against SS Panzer divisions in 1944 have had their regiment sullied by some of their successors.

“Shooting in the back unarmed civilians fleeing from them on the streets of a British city.

“Those responsible should hang their heads in shame.”

However, the judge said there was no concept of “collective guilt” in the courts.

He said the Crown had failed to establish that Soldier F was “knowingly and intentionally assisting in the shootings, with intent to kill, or was shooting himself with that intention”.

He said the sole evidence against Soldier F was from two other veterans, Soldiers G and H, and said there were difficulties in relying on it.

The judge said: “Their statements, the sole and decisive evidence, cannot be tested in a way that witnesses giving evidence from the witness box would be.

“Delay has, in my view, seriously hampered the capacity of the defence to test the veracity and accuracy of the hearsay statements.

“The two witnesses are themselves, on the basis of the Crown case guilty of murder as, in essence, accomplices with a motivation to name F as a participant in their murderous activities.

“I find that they have been serially untruthful about matters central to events giving rise to this prosecution.”

The judge added that “whatever suspicion” the court may have about the role of Soldier F, he was “constrained and limited” by the evidence presented.

He said: “To convict it has to be upon evidence that is convincing and manifestly reliable.

“The evidence presented by the Crown falls well short of this standard and signally fails to reach the high standard of proof required in a criminal case; that of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Therefore, I find the accused not guilty on all seven counts on the present bill of indictment.”