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January 30th, 1972 is remembered as among the most fatal – and significant – occasions in multiple decades of violence in the region.

In the streets where it happened – the images of Bloody Sunday are painted on the structures and etched in collective memory.

A civil rights march was conducted on a chilly yet clear period in Derry.

The protest was challenging the policy of internment – imprisoning people without due process – which had been established after three years of violence.

Military personnel from the Parachute Regiment shot dead multiple civilians in the Bogside area – which was, and remains, a strongly nationalist community.

A specific visual became particularly prominent.

Photographs showed a clergyman, Fr Edward Daly, displaying a blood-stained fabric in his effort to defend a group moving a teenager, the fatally wounded individual, who had been fatally wounded.

Media personnel documented considerable film on the day.

Documented accounts contains Father Daly telling a journalist that soldiers "just seemed to shoot indiscriminately" and he was "absolutely certain" that there was no provocation for the shooting.

That version of what happened wasn't accepted by the original examination.

The first investigation determined the Army had been shot at first.

In the resolution efforts, Tony Blair's government set up a fresh examination, after campaigning by surviving kin, who said the initial inquiry had been a inadequate investigation.

In 2010, the findings by Lord Saville said that on balance, the paratroopers had discharged weapons initially and that zero among the victims had posed any threat.

At that time government leader, the leader, expressed regret in the government chamber – saying fatalities were "without justification and inexcusable."

The police commenced look into the events.

An ex-soldier, known as Soldier F, was prosecuted for homicide.

Indictments were filed over the killings of James Wray, in his twenties, and twenty-six-year-old William McKinney.

The accused was also accused of attempting to murder several people, additional persons, Joe Mahon, another person, and an unknown person.

There is a judicial decision protecting the veteran's anonymity, which his legal team have claimed is essential because he is at risk of attack.

He told the examination that he had solely shot at people who were possessing firearms.

That claim was dismissed in the official findings.

Evidence from the examination could not be used straightforwardly as evidence in the court case.

In the dock, the accused was hidden from public with a privacy screen.

He made statements for the first time in the proceedings at a hearing in December 2024, to answer "not guilty" when the charges were read.

Family members of the deceased on the incident journeyed from Derry to Belfast Crown Court every day of the trial.

John Kelly, whose sibling was died, said they understood that attending the proceedings would be difficult.

"I remember all details in my mind's eye," the relative said, as we walked around the key areas referenced in the case – from the location, where his brother was killed, to the adjacent Glenfada Park, where James Wray and William McKinney were fatally wounded.

"It even takes me back to where I was that day.

"I helped to carry Michael and place him in the vehicle.

"I relived the entire event during the testimony.

"Despite enduring all that – it's still meaningful for me."