LONDON (AP) — The only British soldier to be prosecuted in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland went on trial Monday in Belfast on murder charges in a case that has come to symbolize the three decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles.”

The ex-paratrooper, a lance corporal named as “Soldier F” to protect his identity, was concealed behind a blue curtain that shielded him from view of the families of some of the 13 people killed and 15 wounded when troops opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators on Jan. 30, 1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry.

“The civilians ... did not pose a threat to the soldiers and nor could the soldiers have believed that they did,” prosecutor Louis Mably said during an opening statement in Belfast Crown Court. “The civilians

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