A British army veteran has been found not guilty of murder in relation to Bloody Sunday, when the Parachute regiment shot dead 13 civil rights protesters in Derry in 1972.
Soldier F was on trial for two murders and five attempted murders during a defining event of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.
Mr Justice Lynch gave the ruling at Belfast crown court on Thursday, five weeks after the start of the long-awaited trial that was closely watched by nationalists, army veteran groups and the British and Irish governments. The judge presided over the case without a jury, which is permitted in exceptional cases.
Soldier F, a former lance corporal, had pleaded not guilty to the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and the attempted murder of five others. Granted anonymity by a court order, he was concealed in the dock by a curtain.
British troops shot 31 civilians on the day of the protest, killing 13. Another casualty who died four months later is widely considered a 14th victim.
Relatives of the dead campaigned for decades for prosecutions and said the trial of Soldier F was momentous. Army veteran groups have called it a witch-hunt.