A British former paratrooper was acquitted on Thursday of five counts of murder, more than a half-century after his unit killed 14 unarmed Roman Catholic civilians in Northern Ireland on Bloody Sunday, one of the deadliest days in the sectarian violence known as the Troubles.
Referred to only as Soldier F because his identity is protected under court order, the former paratrooper had been charged decades after the events of Jan. 30, 1972, after the relatives of those killed pushed for a trial. The court proceedings, which took place in September, served as a painful reminder of the killings, for which David Cameron, then the British prime minister, formally apologized in 2010.
That apology followed a searing government report that was intended to settle the issue of responsibility for the killings, which was part of years of violence between Catholics and Protestants. But the report left open the possibility that some members of the unit involved, the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, would eventually be charged in the killing of the 13 people that day and of one other who died later.
Judge Patrick Lynch wrote on Thursday that he believed Soldier F had participated with three others in the killings that day in the city of Derry. Judge Lynch said the soldiers “were responsible for the deaths and woundings. They had totally lost all sense of military discipline.”
But he concluded that prosecutors could not prove that Soldier F had knowingly and intentionally assisted in the shootings with an intent to kill.
“To convict, it has to be upon evidence that is convincing and manifestly reliable,” Judge Lynch wrote. The evidence, he added, “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.”
The verdict was quickly denounced by advocates for the families of those killed and injured. Michelle O’Neill, first minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, called it “an affront to justice” in a social media post.
“Fifty three years ago, the British Army indiscriminately murdered civilians on the streets of Derry,” she wrote. “Yet, not one British soldier or their military and political superiors has ever been held to account.”
The Troubles in Northern Ireland raged for some 30 years, until a power-sharing deal known as the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, ending the violence and reshaping the area’s political structure.
In the 25 years since, Northern Ireland’s violent past has gradually receded as a younger generation grew up with less of the sectarian anger that had fueled the unrest.
But the prosecution of Soldier F tapped into the resentments that still linger, especially about the lack of accountability that characterized many of the brutal killings on both sides.
On Bloody Sunday, a crowd of about 10,000 had gathered in Derry, which is also known as Londonderry by unionists, to protest the British government’s frequent use at the time of detention without trial, a tactic used by officials to try to prevent terrorist activities by those suspected of extremism.
British troops, who were deployed in the city, opened fire with high-power combat rifles, striking more than two dozen people. Inquiries later concluded that the army, not the protesters, had fired the first shots without any warning and that none of the people hit by bullets had been carrying a firearm.
The 2010 report found that soldiers had lost “their self-control” and had been guilty of “forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training.” The investigation, led by Lord Saville, a high-ranking judge, as a condition of the 1998 Good Friday negotiations, described one victim crawling away from soldiers and another who, “in all probability,” was fired upon “while he was lying mortally wounded on the ground.”
In some ways, the massacre on that Sunday was instrumental in generating empathy and publicity for the plight of Catholics in Northern Ireland, helping to pave the way for the international pressure that led to the final peace agreement.
But the unresolved nature of the killings has remained a source of tension even in recent years in Derry, where locals describe a sense of frustration that individual members of the British military have not been punished for their actions that day.
The verdict in the Soldier F case is unlikely to help. But even as he acquitted the soldier, Judge Lynch offered an assessment of the soldiers who fired on the Bloody Sunday crowd that is likely to be welcomed by those who think justice has not yet been done.
“They were members of a regiment formed in 1942, at the behest of Prime Minister Churchill, and had a proud record in World War II,” he wrote. “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 in the streets of a British city.”
He added: “Those responsible should hang their heads in shame.”
Michael D. Shear is a senior Times correspondent covering British politics and culture, and diplomacy around the world.
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