Veteran’s trial over Bloody Sunday deaths to resume

THE discontinued prosecution of a British army veteran known as Soldier F for two murders on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972 is to resume.

The North’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced that court proceedings are to recommence against the former paratrooper on two counts of murder and five of attempted murder.

Last year, the PPS announced a halt to the prosecution citing concerns that the case could collapse if it proceeded to trial. However, earlier this year, the Divisional Court of the High Court in Belfast overruled that move after it was challenged by the family of one of the victims.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the court rejected the PPS’s bid to have its appeal referred to the UK Supreme Court.

The PPS had originally announced that it was halting the prosecution of Soldier F for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney, amid concerns the case could collapse in light of a separate court ruling on the admissibility of evidence – which caused the collapse of another Troubles murder trial involving two military veterans.

The McKinney family then successfully challenged the original decision by prosecutors by way of judicial review.

Bloody Sunday was one of the darkest days of the Troubles, when members of the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 civil rights protesters in the Bogside area of Derry. Another man shot by paratroopers on January 30, 1972 died four months later.

Deputy director of public prosecutions Michael Agnew said: ‘In order to give effect to the Divisional Court judgment, the original decision to prosecute Soldier F should stand.’