Trial of Soldier F

Uncommon card · No. 184728

On 15 September 2025 at Belfast Crown Court, the former British paratrooper known as "Soldier F" went on trial for the murder of William McKinney and James Wray, as well as five counts of attempted murder (regarding Patrick O'Donnell, Joseph Friel, Joe Mahon, Michael Quinn and an unknown person) during a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, on 30 January 1972, an event that became known as Bloody Sunday. The defendant, who was screened from public view by a black curtain, pleaded not guilty to all charges before judge Patrick Lynch at the non-jury court. The actual identity of "Soldier F" has often not been revealed in published material about the trial, and is not included in this Wikipedia article. The 2010 Saville Inquiry concluded that there was "no doubt" Soldier F had shot Michael Kelly, Patrick Doherty and Barney McGuigan (in the back of the head as he went to help Doherty) and that they were all unarmed. At the Inquiry, Soldier F admitted that he shot the three victims...

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