Soldiers shot 26 civilians that day. Thirteen people were killed immediately, while another man died from his injuries four months later.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
The former British paratrooper, known as Soldier F under a court anonymity order, is accused of murdering James Wray and William McKinney and attempting to murder five others when soldiers opened fire on unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers in Derry (also known as Londonderry) on January 30, 1972.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have previously ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge 16 other former British soldiers.<\/p>\n
The massacre became a pivotal moment in the Troubles, igniting nearly three decades of violence between Irish nationalists seeking civil rights and a united Ireland, pro-British unionists wanting to remain in the United Kingdom, and the British Army.<\/p>\n
For the families of those killed and wounded, the proceedings at Belfast\u2019s Crown Court mark the culmination of 53 years of campaigning for justice.<\/p>\n
From Widgery to Saville<\/p>\n
On the day of the killings, about 15,000 people had joined a march in Derry\u00a0city to protest systematic discrimination against Irish Catholics in housing, voting, and employment.<\/p>\n
As demonstrators moved through the city, soldiers from the British Parachute Regiment opened fire, gunning down people as they fled and others who stayed to help the wounded.<\/p>\n
The Widgery Tribunal, an investigation held in 1972, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of responsibility \u2013 findings that the families of victims and campaigners rejected as a whitewash.<\/p>\n
![\"Derry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dda40c3ee21145a2ad9378764b6eb1d6_18.jpeg\")
Tourists stand in front of a mural depicting the Bloody Sunday killings, in Derry, Northern Ireland [File: Clodagh Kilcoyne\/ Reuters]<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A second inquiry, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville Inquiry, published its findings in June 2010. It concluded there had been no justification for any of the shootings and found that paratroopers had fired at fleeing unarmed civilians.<\/p>\n
Then-Prime Minister David Cameron told the UK Parliament the same day that the killings were \u201cunjustified and unjustifiable\u201d and apologised on behalf of the British government.<\/p>\n
Following the Saville Inquiry, police in Northern Ireland launched a murder investigation, with prosecutors finding that one former soldier would face trial for two murders and five attempted murders.<\/p>\n
\u2018We shall overcome\u2019<\/p>\n
Outside Belfast Crown Court, John McKinney, the brother of William McKinney, described the trial as a landmark in the families\u2019 decades-long fight for accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that we have achieved to this point has been through relentless commitment and a refusal to lie down,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, our message is simple: towards justice, we shall overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the proceedings began on Monday, relatives of the victims marched to the courthouse holding photographs of those who had been killed and a banner reading \u201ctowards justice\u201d.<\/p>\n
Soldier F, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, sat in the dock shielded on all sides by black sheets to conceal his identity, with a microphone suspended from the ceiling.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the prosecution said the case was focused specifically on the shooting of seven civilians as they ran through a residential courtyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shooting was unnecessary and it was gratuitous and was carried out with an intent to kill,\u201d prosecution lawyer Louis Mably told the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese soldiers lost control of themselves,\u201d he said, describing their behaviour as \u201cunprofessional\u201d and \u201can act which disgraced the British Army\u201d.<\/p>\n
The trial will continue for weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first-ever trial of a former British soldier accused of murder during the 1972 massacre began in Belfast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,20087,6178,30,393,299,4884,2348,4582,25781,678,2597,12,1144,285,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-426774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-civil-rights","11":"tag-conflict","12":"tag-courts","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-history","17":"tag-human-rights","18":"tag-investigation","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-military","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-northern-ireland","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-scotland","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom","27":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115209461534934315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}