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The first ever trial of a former British soldier accused of murdering victims of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre opens on Monday in Belfast, in a landmark moment in Northern Ireland’s conflict-scarred recent history.

The ex-paratrooper – identified only as “Soldier F” – faces two murder and five attempted murder charges over the 1972 atrocity, one of the most significant events in the three-decade-long “Troubles” that plagued the British territory.

He has pleaded not guilty and last year applied to have the case against him dismissed, but a judge rejected his claim.

The former soldier is charged with murdering civilians James Wray and William McKinney, and with the attempted murder of five others, during the crackdown on a civil rights protest in Londonderry – also known as Derry – more than half a century ago.

British troops opened fire on protesters in the majority Catholic Bogside area of Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s second-largest city, on January 30, 1972, killing 13 people.

A 14th victim later died of his wounds.

Hidden from public view by a large curtain, Soldier F replied “not guilty” when each of the seven charges was put to him last year.

His application for anonymity and screening during the trial was granted by the judge.

Relatives and supporters of the victims of the 1972 'Bloody Sunday' killings hold images of James Wray and William McKinney. Photo / Paul Faith, AFP

State apology

Relatives of victims of the massacre plan to gather outside the court before the trial opens.

“We have waited 53 long years for justice and, hopefully, we will get a measure of it through this trial,” Tony Doherty, whose father Patrick was among the ‘Bloody Sunday’ victims, told local media in Derry.

‘Bloody Sunday’ helped to galvanise support for the Provisional IRA, the main paramilitary organisation fighting for a united Ireland.

It was one of the bloodiest incidents in the Troubles, during which some 3500 people were killed. It largely ended with 1998 peace accords.

Northern Irish prosecutors first recommended Soldier F stand trial in 2019.

It dropped the case after the collapse of the trial of several other ex-soldiers, before reopening it in 2022.

The case has proven deeply divisive in Northern Ireland, where the decades of sectarian violence that began in the 1960s continue to cast a long shadow.

An inquiry in 1972 after the killings cleared the soldiers of culpability but was widely seen by Catholics as a whitewash.

That probe – the Widgery Tribunal – closed off prosecutions at the time, and only decades later, after the 1998 peace accords, was a new one – the Saville Inquiry – opened.

Legal history

That 12-year public inquiry – the largest investigation in UK legal history – concluded in 2010 that British paratroopers had lost control and none of the casualties posed a threat of causing death or serious injury.

The probe prompted then Prime Minister David Cameron to issue a formal state apology for the killings, calling them “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

Northern Irish police then began a murder investigation into ‘Bloody Sunday’ and finally submitted their files to prosecutors in 2016.

The case against Soldier F has faced multiple delays over evidential issues, while bringing other former soldiers to trial is widely seen as unlikely as many ‘Bloody Sunday’ witnesses have died since then.

Controversial UK legislation passed under the Conservatives in 2023, the Legacy Act, also effectively ended most Troubles-era prosecutions for both former soldiers and paramilitaries.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn formally started the process to repeal the act last December.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said last week that Dublin and London were “very close” to agreeing a new framework on Troubles legacy issues in Northern Ireland, following a meeting with his British counterpart Keir Starmer.

In November 2022 former British serviceman David Holden became the first soldier convicted of a killing committed during the Troubles following the 1998 accords.

He went on to receive a three-year suspended sentence for manslaughter for shooting 23-year-old Aidan McAnespie.

-Agence France-Presse