The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has announced that fifteen former soldiers, who were investigated for perjury regarding the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, will not face charges due to “insufficient” evidence. Thirteen people were shot and killed, and fifteen others were injured, during a civil rights demonstration in Londonderry. The soldiers opened fire on the marchers on January 30, 1972.
The 2010 report by Lord Saville’s inquiry exposed that some soldiers knowingly provided false information. John O’Neill, a senior public prosecutor at the PPS, stated that the decision was taken after the prosecution team examined an extensive amount of evidence and evaluated complex legal and evidential issues against the fifteen ex-soldiers and the accused former Official IRA member. The same decision was reached in respect of the alleged IRA member.
The Bloody Sunday families expressed disappointment and disbelief at the PPS’s decision, considering it a “continuation of injustice”. John Kelly, whose brother Michael was shot dead during the event, said that the soldiers who caused the deaths and injuries on that day have apparently “forgotten it.” Furthermore, solicitor Ciaran Shiels, who represented some of the families of the victims, stated that his clients were disappointed but not “fooled” by the PPS decision.
Lord Saville’s official inquiry into the Bloody Sunday massacre concluded in 2010 that all victims were innocent and posed no threat. Additionally, the report stated that the soldiers involved in the shooting had submitted false accounts. In 2019, one former paratrooper, recognized as Soldier F, was prosecuted for murder and attempted murder and has since been brought to trial
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