How the Legal Case of an Army Veteran Over the 1972 Londonderry Incident Concluded in Case Dismissal

January 30th, 1972 is remembered as arguably the most fatal – and significant – days throughout thirty years of conflict in the region.

Within the community where events unfolded – the memories of that fateful day are painted on the structures and embedded in public consciousness.

A civil rights march was conducted on a cold but bright period in Londonderry.

The demonstration was a protest against the system of imprisonment without charges – imprisoning people without trial – which had been established after three years of violence.

Military personnel from the specialized division fatally wounded thirteen individuals in the Bogside area – which was, and remains, a strongly Irish nationalist community.

One image became especially memorable.

Images showed a religious figure, Father Daly, using a stained with blood white handkerchief while attempting to shield a crowd carrying a youth, the injured teenager, who had been killed.

Journalists documented extensive video on the day.

Documented accounts features the priest telling a reporter that soldiers "appeared to fire in all directions" and he was "completely sure" that there was no justification for the shooting.

This account of events was rejected by the first inquiry.

The first investigation found the Army had been fired upon initially.

Throughout the peace process, the ruling party established a new investigation, after campaigning by surviving kin, who said the initial inquiry had been a whitewash.

During 2010, the conclusion by Lord Saville said that generally, the paratroopers had fired first and that none of the victims had posed any threat.

The contemporary government leader, David Cameron, issued an apology in the House of Commons – declaring deaths were "without justification and unjustifiable."

The police started to examine the events.

A military veteran, known as the accused, was prosecuted for homicide.

Indictments were filed concerning the killings of James Wray, 22, and in his mid-twenties the second individual.

The defendant was additionally charged of trying to kill multiple individuals, Joseph Friel, more people, another person, and an unknown person.

Exists a court ruling protecting the defendant's privacy, which his attorneys have argued is essential because he is at threat.

He stated to the Saville Inquiry that he had only fired at people who were carrying weapons.

This assertion was rejected in the official findings.

Evidence from the examination could not be used immediately as testimony in the legal proceedings.

In court, the defendant was shielded from sight with a blue curtain.

He spoke for the initial occasion in court at a proceeding in that month, to reply "not responsible" when the accusations were presented.

Kin of those who were killed on that day travelled from Derry to the courthouse each day of the case.

One relative, whose relative was fatally wounded, said they were aware that hearing the case would be painful.

"I can see all details in my memory," he said, as we examined the main locations mentioned in the case – from the location, where the victim was killed, to the adjoining Glenfada Park, where James Wray and William McKinney were died.

"It reminds me to my position that day.

"I helped to carry Michael and put him in the medical transport.

"I went through every moment during the proceedings.

"Notwithstanding enduring everything – it's still valuable for me."