‘Deep disappointment’ for victim’s families as just one soldier will face charges over Northern Ireland’s Bloody Sunday killings
- Stephen Herron, director of public prosecutions for Northern Ireland, says out of the 18 suspects, there was only sufficient evidence to prosecute one
- Thirteen people were killed in Derry in 1972 on one of the worst days of the Troubles
Only one former paratrooper is to be charged in connection with the killings of civil rights demonstrators in Northern Ireland on Bloody Sunday in January 1972. The decision was announced by Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) after relatives of the 13 people who died on one of the darkest days of the Troubles, had marched together through the streets of Derry where the victims fell.
The director of public prosecutions for Northern Ireland, Stephen Herron, said: “It has been concluded that there is sufficient available evidence to prosecute one former soldier, Soldier F, for the murder of James Wray and William McKinney, and for the attempted murders of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon and Patrick O’Donnell.
“In respect of the other 18 suspects, including 16 former soldiers and two alleged Official IRA members, it has been concluded that the available evidence is insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction.”
On their way to the City hotel, where details of the charges were first revealed to the families, the relatives paused to sing the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome. The prosecution decisions were then formally announced by the PPS in Derry’s Guildhall.
The former serviceman has not been named and will only be identified by the letters used during the 12-year-long Saville inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday.