Reflecting on yesterday’s judgement in the case against Soldier F, the former British soldier charged with multiple murder and attempted murder, Bloody Sunday Trust Chairperson Tony Doherty, whose father Patrick was murdered on Bloody Sunday, said:
While we are obviously disappointed that no one has yet been convicted for the fourteen murders and seventeen attempted murders by the British Army on Bloody Sunday, we note the judge’s words that show that this judgement was far from an exoneration of the Parachute Regiment and its murderous actions.
The judge was clear that those supposedly elite British soldiers ‘opened fire with high velocity weapons at unarmed civilians’, that ‘Soldiers G, H, F and E were part of the initial group of soldiers who entered the square and were responsible for the deaths and woundings’ and that they should ‘hang their heads in shame’.
He was clear that ‘the two witnesses are themselves, on the basis of the Crown case, guilty of murder as, in essence, accomplices with a motivation to name F as a participant in their murderous activities…serially untruthful about matters central to events…have committed perjury’.
In summing up he referred to acquitting ‘whatever suspicions the court may have had about the role of F’ but being ‘constrained and limited by the evidence properly presented…’.
Despite this certain unionist politicians have seen fit to celebrate. That is an absolute disgrace.
In contrast, we would like to place on record our deep thanks to all those great people who have supported us during this recent case, especially those from the Markets Development Association whose help was invaluable. Go raibh mile, mile maith agaibh.
I would also like to commend the journey taken by the Bloody Sunday families over our many years of campaigning. When we started out the Widgery travesty was still the accepted version of Bloody Sunday for the British government and others. It is now in the bin where it belongs, our loved ones have all been declared innocent, and we have seen murder charges against a British soldier. We achieved what we set out to achieve. We changed history. No one should forget that.
