British ex-soldier charged with Northern Ireland Bloody Sunday killings

A former British soldier was charged with murder on Thursday over the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings, one of the darkest chapters in the Northern Ireland conflict.

The ex-paratrooper, identified only as Soldier F, was charged with murdering two people and the attempted murder of four others in what was an early turning point in the history of the Troubles, three decades of deadly sectarian unrest.

British troops opened fire on a civil rights demonstration in Derry, Northern Ireland's second city, killing 13 people on January 30, 1972. A 14th victim later died of his wounds.

Soldier F was one of 17 British veterans who had faced investigation, plus two alleged Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitaries, but he was the only one charged.

Relatives of the victims looked visibly upset after learning that there would only be a prosecution over two of the deaths.

"The Bloody Sunday families are not finished yet," said John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother Michael was killed.

He raised the prospect of a legal challenge against the decisions not to prosecute others.

"We have walked a long journey since our fathers and brothers were brutally slaughtered on the streets of Derry on Bloody Sunday," he said.

"The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is the duty of the living to do so for them."
"In respect of the other 18 suspects, including 16 former soldiers and two alleged Official IRA members, it has been concluded that the available evidence is insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction."
"It's all about appeasement... and if that means throwing one or two veterans under a bus then that's what they'll do."
"It was like getting stabbed in the back again." Mickey McKinney, whose brother William, aged 27, was shot in the back, stressed: "Justice for one family is justice for all of us."