Comrades’ 1972 statements say Soldier F fired on civilians during Bloody Sunday, court hears

Comrades of an Army veteran on trial over alleged murders on Bloody Sunday told investigators in the immediate aftermath that he opened fire on civilians, Belfast Crown Court heard Wednesday.

Prosecutors told Judge Patrick Lynch that statements made to the Royal Military Police in the early hours of Jan. 31, 1972, placed the man known only as Soldier F at Glenfada Park North and disclosed that he had discharged his rifle. The judge, sitting without a jury under procedures used for terrorism-related cases in Northern Ireland, is being asked to rule whether those accounts can be admitted as evidence.

Prosecutor Louis Mably KC told the court the statements “constitute decisive evidence in the case in that they provide the only evidence which is capable of proving that Soldier F was one of those who opened fire.” He acknowledged that if the statements were excluded, the remaining evidence would not be sufficient to sustain a conviction.

Defence lawyers say the soldiers were compelled to make those accounts, were not placed under caution and did not have legal representation, and therefore the material should not be used by the prosecution. Judge Lynch must decide whether the circumstances in which the 1972 statements were obtained render them inadmissible.

The court heard evidence from a witness identified in court papers as Soldier G, a former platoon comrade, who said he saw two men about 25 metres away armed with what he believed were small rifles. Asked whether Soldier F was firing at the same time as him, Soldier G said: “I know F had fired, he was by the side of me. I could tell he was firing. I was aware he was firing.”

Four soldiers are said to have fired shots at civilians on Jan. 30, 1972; two of those soldiers have since died and one is not a participant in the present trial, the prosecution said. The Crown has said it cannot identify which individual fired the fatal shots that killed 13 civil rights demonstrators during the events that became known as Bloody Sunday.

Soldier F, a former paratrooper now in his 70s, is charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and with the attempted murders of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon, Patrick O'Donnell and a person unknown. He denies all charges. The court was told that Mr. Friel, Mr. Quinn and Mr. Mahon are due to give evidence at the trial.

Relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday have attended proceedings and held photographs seeking accountability, while veterans have attended in supportive numbers for the defendant, the court heard.

Bloody Sunday occurred on Jan. 30, 1972, in Londonderry (also called Derry), Northern Ireland, when troops of the British Army's Parachute Regiment fired on participants in a civil rights march, killing 13 protesters and injuring others. The shootings became a defining and contested episode during the Troubles and have prompted multiple inquiries and legal actions over the decades.

The statements in question were recorded by the Royal Military Police in the days following the shootings. Mr. Mably said the soldiers who gave accounts had to “account for something they had been involved in” amid a scene of dead bodies and expended ammunition. Defence counsel argue the procedure used at the time denied the soldiers legal protections and that their statements should not be treated as reliable evidence.

The admissibility ruling is likely to be pivotal because, the prosecution says, there is no other evidence capable of proving Soldier F fired at civilians. The trial is continuing and the court will hear further submissions on whether the 1972 statements can be placed before Judge Lynch and relied on in determining the charges against Soldier F.