How this Legal Case of a Former Soldier Regarding Bloody Sunday Ended in Case Dismissal
Sunday 30 January 1972 is remembered as among the most deadly β and momentous β days in thirty years of violence in this area.
Throughout the area where it happened β the images of Bloody Sunday are painted on the buildings and seared in collective memory.
A protest demonstration was organized on a chilly yet clear period in Londonderry.
The march was challenging the system of detention without trial β imprisoning people without due process β which had been established after three years of violence.
Military personnel from the elite army unit shot dead multiple civilians in the district β which was, and continues to be, a overwhelmingly nationalist area.
One image became notably prominent.
Pictures showed a Catholic priest, Fr Edward Daly, waving a stained with blood cloth while attempting to defend a group carrying a teenager, the injured teenager, who had been killed.
News camera operators documented much footage on the day.
Documented accounts features Fr Daly informing a reporter that military personnel "just seemed to discharge weapons randomly" and he was "absolutely certain" that there was no reason for the shooting.
The narrative of events was rejected by the first inquiry.
The first investigation found the soldiers had been fired upon initially.
During the resolution efforts, Tony Blair's government established a new investigation, after campaigning by bereaved relatives, who said the first investigation had been a whitewash.
That year, the report by the investigation said that generally, the soldiers had fired first and that not one of the victims had been armed.
The then head of state, the Prime Minister, issued an apology in the government chamber β declaring killings were "without justification and unjustifiable."
Authorities started to examine the matter.
A military veteran, identified as Soldier F, was charged for homicide.
Indictments were filed concerning the deaths of the first individual, twenty-two, and in his mid-twenties another victim.
The accused was further implicated of attempting to murder multiple individuals, Joseph Friel, Joe Mahon, an additional individual, and an unnamed civilian.
There is a legal order maintaining the soldier's privacy, which his attorneys have maintained is essential because he is at threat.
He testified the Saville Inquiry that he had exclusively discharged his weapon at people who were possessing firearms.
That claim was rejected in the official findings.
Information from the investigation could not be used immediately as proof in the criminal process.
During the trial, the defendant was hidden from public with a privacy screen.
He spoke for the initial occasion in court at a proceeding in that month, to answer "not guilty" when the accusations were put to him.
Family members of the victims on the incident travelled from Londonderry to the courthouse daily of the case.
A family member, whose sibling was fatally wounded, said they always knew that attending the case would be difficult.
"I can see the events in my memory," John said, as we visited the primary sites mentioned in the case β from the street, where Michael was killed, to the adjacent the courtyard, where the individual and the second person were fatally wounded.
"It even takes me back to my location that day.
"I helped to carry my brother and place him in the vehicle.
"I relived every moment during the evidence.
"But even with enduring the process β it's still valuable for me."