{"id":99297,"date":"2025-10-23T13:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T13:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/99297\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T13:18:10","slug":"former-paratrooper-soldier-f-found-not-guilty-of-murder-in-bloody-sunday-trial-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/99297\/","title":{"rendered":"Former paratrooper Soldier F found not guilty of murder in Bloody Sunday trial \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/british-army\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/british-army\/\">British paratrooper<\/a> known as Soldier F has been found not guilty of murder on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/bloody-sunday\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/bloody-sunday\/\">Bloody Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He was also acquitted of attempted murder at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There was silence among families of Bloody Sunday victims in court 12 at Laganside court when the verdict was delivered by Judge Patrick Lynch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There was also no reaction from those in the public gallery supporting the former British solider, who is now in his 70s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Thirteen people were killed when members of the British army\u2019s elite Parachute Regiment opened fire on anti-internment marchers in the Bogside area of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/derry\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/derry\/\">Derry<\/a> on January 30th, 1972. A 14th died later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Following a police investigation, the North\u2019s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced in 2019 that Soldier F was to be charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and five counts of attempted murder on Bloody Sunday, with court proceedings beginning later that year.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Relatives and supporters outside court after the not guilty verdict was announced in the Belfast trial of Soldier F. Photograph: Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/7ZDAAWICHEJRU22Z2P3OHCSZ2M.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Relatives and supporters outside court after the not guilty verdict was announced in the Belfast trial of Soldier F. Photograph: Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The non-jury trial of Soldier F for the murders began at Belfast Crown Court before Judge Patrick Lynch last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The only member of the British armed forces to face prosecution for his actions on Bloody Sunday, Soldier F cannot be identified due to a court order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He appeared in court for the duration of the trial completely shielded from view by a black curtain, to preserve his anonymity. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">More to follow &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former British paratrooper known as Soldier F has been found not guilty of murder on Bloody Sunday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[61745,27236,7726,42,43,2443,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-99297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bloody-sunday","9":"tag-british-army","10":"tag-derry","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}