Ex-soldier cleared of killings

A Belfast judge on Thursday acquitted a British ex-paratrooper of killing unarmed civilians during the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, a verdict condemned by victims’ relatives and Northern Ireland's political leader.

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Brothers of a Bloody Sunday victim react outside a court in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Thursday, following the 'not guilty' verdict in Soldier F's case.

(AFP)

The case is deeply divisive in Northern Ireland, where three decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles” still cast a long shadow, even after a peace deal was brokered in 1998.

British troops opened fire on civil rights protesters in the majority-Catholic Bogside area of Londonderry — also known as Derry to pro-Irish nationalists — on Jan 30, 1972, killing 13 people.

A 14th victim later died of his wounds.

Judge Patrick Lynch told the court he was satisfied there had been an intention to kill but that the prosecution had failed to “establish by whose hand the fatal shots were fired’.