The first ever trial of a former British soldier accused of murdering victims of the Bloody Sunday massacre opens Monday in Belfast, in a landmark moment in Northern Ireland's conflict-scarred recent history.

The ex-paratrooper -- identified only as "Soldier F" -- faces two murder and five attempted murder charges over the 1972 atrocity, one of the most significant events in the three-decade-long "Troubles" that plagued the British territory.

He has pleaded not guilty and last year applied to have the case against him dismissed, but a judge rejected his claim.

The former soldier is charged with murdering civilians James Wray and William McKinney, and with the attempted murder of five others, during the crackdown on a civil rights protest in Londonderry -- also known as Derry -- more tha

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