An attempt to halt the trial of Soldier F for murder and attempted murder on Bloody Sunday has been dismissed.
His legal team argued the former paratrooper had no case to answer because key evidence being relied on by the prosecution was unreliable. However, this was rejected by Judge Patrick Lynch, who said he “declined to direct a verdict of not guilty on this basis” and the trial would continue.
Soldier F, a former member of the British army’s elite Parachute Regiment, is charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and five counts of attempted murder in Derry on January 30th, 1972. He denies the charges.
Thirteen people were killed when members of the regiment opened fire on anti-internment marchers in the Bogside in Derry on what became known as Bloody Sunday. A 14th died later.
READ MORE
The trial of Soldier F, the first member of the British armed forces to face prosecution for his actions on Bloody Sunday, opened at Belfast Crown Court last month.
He is the subject of a court order protecting his anonymity and cannot be identified. He sits in the courtroom screened by a black curtain.
The prosecution’s position is that accounts by two other former soldiers, G and H, place Soldier F in Glenfada Park North – where Mr Wray and Mr McKinney were killed and the others were injured – and allege he fired on civilians.
The defence argued the evidence “simply does not stack up” and made the application for the case to be dismissed on this basis.
An earlier attempt by the defence to have the so-called hearsay evidence of Soldiers G and H ruled inadmissible was also dismissed by the judge.
The trial continues.
