Key statements made by a number of soldiers on the ground during the Bloody Sunday shootings can be used as evidence in the trial of a former paratrooper, a judge has ruled.
Soldier F, who cannot be identified, is accused of murdering James Wray and William McKinney on 30 January 1972.
Judge Patrick Lynch, who is presiding over the non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court, granted an application by the prosecution to admit a number of statements made by other soldiers who were at the time in Londonderry, which is also known as Derry.
These statements include claims the accused veteran fired shots in the courtyard where the two men he is accused of killing were shot.
In making the application at the court last week, the prosecution had characterised the evidence as “decisive” to the case.
Members of the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 civilians in Derry/Londonderry on Bloody Sunday after a civil rights march.
Soldier F is also charged with five attempted murders during the incident in the city’s Bogside area, namely of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon, Patrick O’Donnell and a person unknown.
He has pleaded not guilty to the seven counts.
Last week, prosecution barrister Louis Mably KC argued that statements given by soldiers G and H to the Royal Military Police (RMP) on the night of the shootings, and to the Widgery Tribunal in 1972, are the only evidence “capable of proving” Soldier F fired his rifle at civilians in Glenfada Park North.
“This is decisive evidence,” he told the court.
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Defence barrister Mark Mulholland KC, acting for Soldier F, argued against the application to admit the hearsay evidence, describing the contents of the statements as “contradictory, unreliable and inadmissible”.
Delivering his ruling on Wednesday, the judge said the prosecution has acknowledged it is “totally dependant” upon the hearsay statements by soldiers G and H.
But that the defence challenged it, arguing they do not meet the requirements of admissibility.
The judge said it would be “inappropriate at this stage to give reasons for my decision”.
The trial is set to sit again on Friday when a timetable will be agreed for hearing the remaining evidence.
