The shooting of civilians in Derry on Bloody Sunday was “unjustified”, “unnecessary” and “gratuitous”, a prosecution barrister has said on the opening day of the trial of Soldier F.
The former member of the British army’s elite Parachute Regiment is charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and five counts of attempted murder in Derry on January 30th, 1972. He denies the charges.
Thirteen people were killed when members of the regiment opened fire on anti-internment marchers in Derry’s Bogside on what became known as Bloody Sunday. A 14th died later.
Soldier F is the first member of the British armed forces to face prosecution for his actions on the day. He is the subject of a court order protecting his anonymity and cannot be identified, and appeared in court shielded from view by a black curtain.
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The non-jury case, heard by Judge Paul Lynch, began at Belfast Crown Court on Monday.
Opening the case for the Crown, Louis Mably KC said that, on Bloody Sunday, the defendant was “part of a small group of soldiers” who moved into a residential courtyard at Glenfada Park.
Soldiers “opened fire with their self-loading rifles, shooting at the civilians as they ran away, and the result was ... two deaths and four men wounded”, he said.
The prosecution’s case was, Mr Malby said, “that the shooting was unjustified, the civilians in the courtyard did not pose a threat to the soldiers and nor could the soldiers have believed that they did”.
The civilians were “unarmed, they were simply shot as they ran away ... the shooting was unnecessary and it was gratuitous”, the barrister said.
“It was carried out, given the weapon involved, with an intent to kill” or cause serious harm.
Afterwards, Mr Mably said, the consequences were “dire” and “could not be disguised, because in the courtyard were the bodies of young men lying on the ground”.
Soldiers subsequently gave “false accounts” of what had happened, but Soldier F’s colleagues admitted the defendant had opened fire.
They sought to justify the shooting by claiming the victims had been armed, “an attempt to justify and confuse but ... demonstrably false”, Mr Mably said.
The significance of these statements, he said, was that “they did identify the defendant as one of the people who would open fire at the material time”.
These statements will be the subject of a hearsay application to determine their admissibility as trial evidence later in the week.
Earlier, relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday and their supporters marched together to court holding placards bearing the faces of their loved ones.
A small group of people also gathered in support of Soldier F, some wearing Parachute Regiment insignia.
Northern Ireland’s Veterans Commissioner, David Johnstone, said former soldiers were being demonised and that “for there to be any reconciliation in this province, there must first be a fair and balanced legacy process”.
He called for “a process that does not facilitate the wholesale demonisation of those who served and certainly not facilitate the rewriting of the history of the Troubles”.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, Mr McKinney’s brother John McKinney said Monday was a “momentous day in our battle to secure justice for our loved ones who were murdered on Bloody Sunday”.
He said they had “battled all the odds to get here”.
“Today, we place our trust in the hands of the Public Prosecution Service to finish the job. We hope that they do not let us down.”
