Belfast Crown Court has acquitted a former Parachute Regiment soldier, known as Soldier F, of two murders and five attempted murders arising from the 30 January 1972 shootings in Derry. Delivering a judge-only verdict on 23 October 2025, Mr Justice Patrick Lynch said the prosecution case fell well short of proof beyond reasonable doubt. Soldier F was the only veteran charged in relation to Bloody Sunday.
In a strongly worded judgment, the judge said some paratroopers who entered Glenfada Park North had totally lost all sense of military discipline and shot unarmed civilians as they fled. He added that those responsible should hang their heads in shame, while stressing that the criminal courts do not apply collective guilt.
The case was tried by a judge sitting without a jury under Northern Ireland’s non‑jury trial provisions. Those provisions allow the Director of Public Prosecutions to certify a Crown Court case for trial by judge alone where there is a risk the administration of justice would be impaired if tried by a jury. In such trials the judge is the tribunal of fact and law.
Evidentially, the prosecution relied on historic statements from two former soldiers, identified as Soldiers G and H, taken by the Royal Military Police and the Widgery Inquiry in 1972. One of those witnesses is deceased and the other declined to testify; the judge admitted the statements as hearsay earlier in the proceedings but ultimately found they could not be reliably tested. Soldier F did not give evidence.
Northern Ireland law permits hearsay evidence in limited circumstances, including where a witness is unavailable, subject to the interests of justice. The judge concluded the decades‑old accounts lacked the necessary reliability and could not sustain convictions to the criminal standard.
On the facts found, the court accepted that unarmed civilians were shot while attempting to flee in Glenfada Park North during the civil rights demonstration. However, the judge said the Crown had not proved that Soldier F personally fired with intent to kill or knowingly assisted others to do so.
The verdict sits against extensive official findings from the 2010 Saville Inquiry, which concluded the killings were unjustified, and the then Prime Minister David Cameron’s statement to Parliament describing them as unjustified and unjustifiable, accompanied by a formal apology.
This prosecution has had a complex procedural history. The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) first announced charges against Soldier F in March 2019; discontinued the case in July 2021 following an evidential ruling in another matter; and resumed proceedings after a successful legal challenge in March 2022. An anonymity order remains in force, with the Attorney General for Northern Ireland warning against identification. The non‑jury trial opened in September 2025 and ran for five weeks.
Families expressed disappointment while emphasising the dignity of their decades‑long campaign; veterans’ representatives welcomed the decision and highlighted the difficulties of prosecuting historic cases. Northern Ireland’s Veterans Commissioner David Johnstone said the case again exposed the problems of relying on decades‑old evidence; Paul Young of the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement said veterans would be heartened by the verdict.
Political reaction divided along familiar lines. First Minister Michelle O’Neill called the outcome deeply disappointing and voiced solidarity with the families, while Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson welcomed the judgment as a clear and welcome outcome.
The government has signalled wider policy change on legacy. On 14 October 2025 it introduced a Northern Ireland Troubles Bill to repeal and replace the 2023 Legacy Act after domestic courts found key provisions, including conditional immunity from prosecution, incompatible with human rights law. Ministers say the new approach will end the immunity plan, restore routes to answers for families, and provide defined safeguards for veterans.
Today’s acquittal closes the only criminal trial arising from Bloody Sunday. The PPS has no right to appeal against an acquittal, and any retrial would require new and compelling evidence under statute. For most families, further steps-subject to the emerging legislation-are likely to focus on information recovery, inquests and civil routes rather than criminal accountability.