Ex-soldier acquitted at Bloody Sunday shootings trial

前士兵在血腥星期日枪击案审判中被宣判无罪

Newshour

2025-10-24

47 分钟
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Today, the only military veteran ever prosecuted in relation to the 1972 shootings during a march in Northern Ireland has been acquitted of murder charges. Thirteen people were shot dead in Londonderry when members of the army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators. The BBC’s Ireland correspondent Chris Page takes us through today’s verdict. Also on the programme: Ukraine urges the EU to back a plan to release billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to help fund the country’s defence; NBA basketball stars and mafia members are among more than 30 people arrested in an illegal gambling crackdown; and activist Malala Yousafzai explains what led her to seeking therapy following her experiences with the Taliban. (Photo: Family members hold pictures of victims of the 1972 'Bloody Sunday', in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Credit: Cathal McNaughtan/Reuters)
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  • This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

  • Hello and welcome to News Hour.

  • It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in London.

  • I'm Tim Franks.

  • We're beginning with the most unusual court case.

  • unusual because it saw a man put on trial for a murder more than 50 years ago.

  • Unusual also

  • because it's become a symbol of a much wider debate over the balance between the search for truth and the search for justice from a long-running conflict.

  • That's a debate we'll look at in greater depth in a few minutes.

  • First, though, the specifics of this trial.

  • It took place in Northern Ireland, where for roughly 30 years,

  • up to the turn of the millennium, violence had flared.

  • Thousands died as rival paramilitaries launched attacks driven by sectarian division and nationalist ambition.

  • The British government had quickly sent in the army to try to restore order.

  • But what happened in 1972 and where today's trial came from was perhaps the single most infamous incident in the army's long,

  • contentious deployment.

  • It was called Bloody Sunday. 13 people were shot dead, 15 others injured,

  • when soldiers opened fire at a civil rights demonstration in a predominantly Catholic part of the city of Londonderry.

  • Back in 2010, at the conclusion of a belated and very extended inquiry into the killings,

  • the then British Prime Minister David Cameron called the shootings unjustified and unjustifiable.