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Soldier F is the only military veteran who has been prosecuted over the shootings. The five charges of attempted murder related to two teenagers at the time 16-year-old Joe Mahon and 17-year-old Michael Quinn as well as Joseph Friel, who was 20, and Patrick O'Donnell, 41, and an unknown person. The case was heard by a judge sitting without a jury at Belfast Crown Court and lasted five weeks. To protect his identity, Soldier F was screened from public view and his name not disclosed, as a result of a court order. The decision to charge Soldier F was taken by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in 2019. He was one of 18 former soldiers reported to the PPS as a result of a police investigation, which followed the public inquiry into Bloody Sunday conducted by Lord Saville. But he was the only one charged. Two years later, the PPS dropped the case after the collapse of the trial of two other veterans who had been accused of a 1972 murder in Belfast. But the prosecution resumed in 2022 after a legal challenge.
