The ex-paratrooper, named ‘Soldier F’, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder at the trial in Belfast
The only British soldier to be prosecuted in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland went on trial on Monday in Belfast on murder charges in a case that has come to symbolise the three decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles”.
The ex-paratrooper, a lance corporal named as “Soldier F” to protect his identity, was concealed behind a blue curtain that shielded him from view of the families of some of the 13 people killed and 15 wounded when troops opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators on January 30, 1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
“The civilians … did not pose a threat to the soldiers and nor could the soldiers have believed that they did,” prosecutor Louis Mably said during an opening statement in Belfast Crown Court. “The civilians were unarmed and they were simply shot as they ran away.”
The army veteran pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder in what was the deadliest shooting of the long-running conflict between mainly Catholic supporters of a united Ireland and predominantly Protestant forces that wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
