The Way this Trial of a Former Soldier Over Bloody Sunday Concluded in Not Guilty Verdict
Sunday 30 January 1972 stands as one of the deadliest β and significant β dates throughout thirty years of unrest in the region.
Throughout the area where it happened β the legacy of the tragic events are painted on the walls and etched in public consciousness.
A public gathering was held on a wintry, sunny period in Londonderry.
The protest was challenging the policy of internment β detaining individuals without trial β which had been put in place after multiple years of violence.
Soldiers from the elite army unit fatally wounded 13 people in the district β which was, and continues to be, a strongly Irish nationalist community.
One image became particularly prominent.
Images showed a clergyman, Father Daly, waving a stained with blood white handkerchief as he tried to protect a crowd moving a teenager, the fatally wounded individual, who had been killed.
Media personnel documented extensive video on the day.
Historical records contains the priest explaining to a media representative that troops "just seemed to shoot indiscriminately" and he was "totally convinced" that there was no justification for the discharge of weapons.
This account of what happened was rejected by the initial investigation.
The first investigation found the soldiers had been attacked first.
In the peace process, the ruling party set up a new investigation, in response to advocacy by bereaved relatives, who said Widgery had been a inadequate investigation.
During 2010, the report by the investigation said that generally, the soldiers had discharged weapons initially and that zero among the individuals had posed any threat.
The contemporary government leader, David Cameron, apologised in the Parliament β stating fatalities were "unjustified and unjustifiable."
Authorities commenced look into the incident.
One former paratrooper, known as the defendant, was charged for murder.
Accusations were made over the deaths of the first individual, 22, and in his mid-twenties William McKinney.
The accused was also accused of trying to kill Patrick O'Donnell, Joseph Friel, Joe Mahon, another person, and an unidentified individual.
Remains a legal order protecting the soldier's anonymity, which his legal team have maintained is required because he is at threat.
He stated to the examination that he had solely shot at people who were carrying weapons.
That claim was dismissed in the official findings.
Information from the investigation was unable to be used straightforwardly as testimony in the criminal process.
In the dock, the accused was screened from view with a protective barrier.
He spoke for the opening instance in the hearing at a hearing in that month, to answer "not responsible" when the accusations were put to him.
Relatives of those who were killed on the incident journeyed from Londonderry to Belfast Crown Court every day of the case.
One relative, whose brother Michael was killed, said they always knew that hearing the case would be emotional.
"I visualize everything in my recollection," he said, as we examined the primary sites mentioned in the trial β from Rossville Street, where his brother was shot dead, to the adjoining Glenfada Park, where the individual and William McKinney were fatally wounded.
"It returns me to where I was that day.
"I participated in moving the victim and lay him in the ambulance.
"I went through each detail during the evidence.
"Despite experiencing all that β it's still valuable for me."