The reasons behind the decision to bring charges against L/Cpl F for murder and attempted murder on Bloody Sunday – and not against other members of the Parachute Regiment – have been set out clearly in an announcement made by Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service.

One of the central issues was that evidence presented to the Bloody Sunday inquiry under Lord Saville could not be relied upon for a criminal trial. Additionally, the standard of proof for conviction in a court – beyond reasonable doubt – is different to the inferences that the inquiry could make.

The PPS said: “A court would not permit the prosecution to rely upon the majority of the previous accounts provided by the soldiers as evidence against them in a criminal trial. This is because of the circumstances in which they were obtained [often by military authorities without a caution being administered].

“This has meant that, when applying the test for prosecution in these cases, a large volume of material that played a central role at the inquiry was not available to us in order to support potential prosecutions.”

In its section on the shootings by soldiers in Glenfada Park North and Abbey Park, the PPS said: “In relation to Soldier F it has been concluded that there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and Soldier F is to be prosecuted for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney [as well as] the attempted murders of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon and Patrick O’Donnell.”

Altogether four soldiers were reported in connection with those casualties: soldiers F, H, G and E. Soldiers G and Soldier E have since died, the PPS said.

The statement added: “In relation to Soldier H the position was that there was no evidence capable of proving that he fired upon entering Glenfada Park North (in other words, when these casualties were sustained) other than his own inadmissible accounts. In these circumstances there was no reasonable prospect of conviction and a decision was taken not to prosecute Soldier H.”

The prosecutors, referring to army shootings in the car park area at the front of the Rossville Flats where Jackie Duddy died, admitted: “A fundamental difficulty in relation to this sector was in attributing responsibility for the various casualties to particular soldiers. The Bloody Sunday inquiry, with the benefit of much material that would not be admissible in criminal proceedings, was able only to say that a particular soldier probably shot a particular casualty.”

It added: “The prosecution was not able to identify sufficient admissible evidence to prove with any degree of certainty the actions of the soldiers in this sector. In some cases the only evidence of what individual soldiers did was contained within their own accounts – which are inadmissible against them. In other cases there was evidence from their co-accused – but it was concluded that this evidence would be inadmissible against the soldiers or that, even if it was admissible, it did not provide evidence of criminal conduct.”