Soldier F, a former paratrooper accused of shooting dead two unarmed protestors on Bloody Sunday in 1972, has been found not guilty of their murder and attempting to kill five others.

At court in Belfast, the Judge Patrick Lynch KC said the evidence before him ‘fails to reach the high standard of proof required in a criminal case’.

The Bloody Sunday case points to a broader trend in Northern Ireland, of how the courts are being used almost as a proxy to rehash the battles of the past

1972 was the most violent year of the so-called Troubles, with just under 500 killed. However, the events of that January day in Londonderry stood out and continue to do so in the public understanding of Northern Ireland’s past and the impact that past has on its present.

British soldiers shooting dead 13

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