The Way the Legal Case of an Army Veteran Regarding Bloody Sunday Ended in Not Guilty Verdict
Sunday 30 January 1972 remains one of the deadliest – and momentous – days throughout multiple decades of unrest in this area.
Within the community where events unfolded – the images of Bloody Sunday are visible on the walls and etched in collective memory.
A public gathering was conducted on a chilly yet clear day in the city.
The protest was opposing the policy of imprisonment without charges – detaining individuals without due process – which had been put in place after an extended period of violence.
Troops from the elite army unit shot dead thirteen individuals in the neighborhood – which was, and still is, a strongly Irish nationalist area.
A specific visual became particularly iconic.
Pictures showed a Catholic priest, Father Daly, waving a bloodied white handkerchief as he tried to protect a crowd transporting a youth, Jackie Duddy, who had been killed.
Journalists captured extensive video on the day.
Documented accounts contains the priest informing a journalist that soldiers "gave the impression they would fire in all directions" and he was "completely sure" that there was no provocation for the gunfire.
This account of events was disputed by the first inquiry.
The Widgery Tribunal concluded the military had been fired upon initially.
In the peace process, Tony Blair's government set up another inquiry, following pressure by surviving kin, who said Widgery had been a whitewash.
During 2010, the conclusion by the inquiry said that overall, the soldiers had fired first and that not one of the individuals had posed any threat.
At that time government leader, the leader, issued an apology in the Parliament – saying deaths were "without justification and unacceptable."
The police commenced look into the events.
One former paratrooper, known as the defendant, was prosecuted for homicide.
Indictments were filed concerning the killings of the first individual, twenty-two, and in his mid-twenties William McKinney.
The accused was also accused of trying to kill multiple individuals, Joseph Friel, further individuals, an additional individual, and an unnamed civilian.
Exists a court ruling maintaining the veteran's identity protection, which his legal team have claimed is essential because he is at threat.
He told the examination that he had solely shot at persons who were possessing firearms.
This assertion was dismissed in the concluding document.
Information from the investigation would not be used directly as evidence in the criminal process.
During the trial, the accused was screened from view using a blue curtain.
He spoke for the first time in the hearing at a session in that month, to respond "innocent" when the accusations were put to him.
Kin of those who were killed on Bloody Sunday travelled from Derry to the judicial building each day of the case.
A family member, whose sibling was killed, said they always knew that hearing the proceedings would be emotional.
"I remember everything in my recollection," he said, as we walked around the primary sites referenced in the trial – from the location, where the victim was shot dead, to the adjacent the courtyard, where the individual and another victim were fatally wounded.
"It reminds me to my location that day.
"I participated in moving the victim and lay him in the medical transport.
"I relived every moment during the proceedings.
"Notwithstanding having to go through everything – it's still meaningful for me."