Judge to rule in 1972 Bloody Sunday murder case against former British
soldier
[October 23, 2025]
By BRIAN MELLEY
LONDON (AP) — The only British soldier ever charged in the 1972 Bloody
Sunday massacre will learn his fate Thursday in a Northern Ireland
courtroom.
Judge Patrick Lynch is due to deliver his verdict in Belfast Crown Court
on whether the former paratrooper identified only as Soldier F committed
murder and attempted murder in the deadliest shooting of the three
decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles.”
Prosecutors said the lance corporal, who has 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 Jan. 20,
1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
Thirteen people were killed and 15 were wounded in the event that has
come to symbolize 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 defense 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.
Defense 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.
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Relatives and supporters of the victims of the 1972 Bloody Sunday
massacre march to Belfast Crown Court ahead of the verdict on the
trial of a British soldier identified only as Soldier F, Belfast, in
Northern Ireland, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
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
defense 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-defense 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.
Then-Prime Minister David Cameron apologized and said the killings
were “unjustified and unjustifiable.”
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.
Soldier F has 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.
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