The only British soldier ever charged in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre has been found not guilty of all counts of murder and attempted murder, in a ruling handed down in a Northern Ireland court.

Judge Patrick Lynch delivered his verdict in Belfast Crown Court, in a decision about whether the former paratrooper — identified only as Soldier F — committed murder and attempted murder in the deadliest shooting of the three decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles.”

Prosecutors said earlier that the lance corporal, who had not been named to protect him from retaliation, killed two people and tried to kill five others when he and other troops fired at fleeing unarmed civilians on January 20, 1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry. Loading

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