Jim Shannon: Political pressure led to this vexatious trial of Soldier F for murder on Bloody Sunday, despite the lack of evidence

I want to congratulate Ben Lowry on an excellent article in the recent News Letter of October 25th regarding Bloody Sunday (Click here to read it: ‘The killing of civilians by soldiers on Bloody Sunday was a total horror, that happened amid a terrible context of paramilitary murders’).

As we heard the verdict of ‘not guilty’ in the Soldier F trial, there should have been no surprise.

This case had been investigated multiple times, and there was found to be no evidence to support the claims that this soldier was guilty of murder or attempted murder. Yet many people breathed a sigh of relief that justice was done.

There was never a question of doubt, there was a question that the undeniable political pressure which led this vexatious trial would have brought about a verdict to appease. Let me be clear – the judge expressed his opinion and his sympathies quite clearly, but in law he simply could not find him guilty and the clear reason is – he wasn’t guilty.

Years of trying to paint the security forces as the terrorists failed, as the law recognised something that right-thinking people have always believed – those 300,000 soldiers who served with 1,400 murdered and 6,000 injured gave all they had for our safety and freedom and they are deserving of respect not persecution. This verdict must now draw a line in the sand – the attempt to justify the atrocities of the Troubles are not acceptable in law and must not be accepted by society. There was never a justification for murder.

There is no correlation between the actions of terrorists and those of soldiers under order and thankfully there will be no legal justification to paint these men as any other than the young servicemen who gave their all.

Jim Shannon, Strangford MP