In Court 12 of Belfast’s Laganside court complex, there was silence.
There was silence from the families of those killed on Bloody Sunday, and those injured on the day, and there was silence, too, from the dock, where Soldier F has sat, obscured from view behind a floor-to-ceiling blue curtain to protect his anonymity, for the duration of his trial for murder and attempted murder on January 30th, 1972.
He has been silent for these last five weeks, just as he has been largely silent in 53 years since he and other soldiers from the British army’s elite Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed civilians at an anti-internment march in Derry.
That day they shot dead 13 people; a 14th died later. Many of them were teenagers, many of them were running away in fear for their lives; all were innocent.
Four decades later, Soldier F would tell the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) he no longer had any “reliable recollection” of the events of Bloody Sunday, and therefore could not answer any questions. He declined to give evidence on his own behalf during the trial.
In the face of silence, others spoke out. The focus of this trial was “a timespan of no more than a couple of minutes”, Judge Patrick Lynch said as he delivered his verdict on Thu
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