A Belfast court has found a British soldier not guilty of murder in the only trial of a member of the UK armed forces over the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" killings of 13 unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom government in 2010 apologised for the "unjustified and unjustifiable" killings, when members of the army's elite Parachute Regiment opened fire in the mainly Irish nationalist city of Londonderry in one of the defining moments of Northern Ireland's recent history.

But all efforts to prosecute soldiers have failed and many relatives of victims and their supporters now believe the chance of a successful prosecution of UK armed forces is remote.

Belfast Crown Court was silent when the verdict was read.

The soldier, who cannot be identified legally and

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