SDLP MP Colum Eastwood last week reminded the British House of Commons of the findings of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry and the actions of a British soldier recently found not guilty for his role in the infamous massacre, in which 14 civilians were killed.

During a debate on the Labour government’s new conflict legislation at Westminster, the Derry MP referred to the decision by DUP MPs to post an image of the Parachute Regiment insignia on social media after the acquittal of ‘Soldier F’, who had been charged with killing two men dead and the attempted murder of another five.

“I have to say that as I sat with the families of Bloody Sunday in a court last month and looked at their devastated faces after 53 years of searching for justice, I expected better from some of our leaders and politicians.

“I did not expect tweets with the Parachute Regiment insignia being put out by some senior Members of this House and I did not expect fulsome support for Soldier F from others.

“Let me just put this on the record, because it is important. It seems to me that lots of people who talk about Bloody Sunday never actually bothered to read the Saville inquiry—an inquiry that was, of course, set up by a British Government, led by a British judge and supported by subsequent British Prime Ministers.

“Soldier F, by his own admission, killed five people on Bloody Sunday. He killed Michael Kelly and William McKinney.

“He shot James Wray in the back and while Wray was lying face down on the floor in Glenfada Park, Soldier G came over and finished him off, standing on top of him and shooting him in the back.

“Soldier F then shot Paddy Doherty, who was crying out that he did not want to die alone, so Bernard McGuigan crawled to him waving a white handkerchief.

“What did Soldier F do to Bernard McGuigan? He shot him in the head, killing him instantly.

“He then tried to kill an Italian journalist who was looking through a window in the Rossville flats. Soldier F shot six bullets into that window and by a miracle Fulvio Grimaldi survived.

“Soldier F then went on to pervert the course of justice by lying through his teeth, claiming that four of the people he shot, who were subsequently proven to be innocent civilians, were engaged in riotous behaviour.

“He went to Fort George army base, where the people who were arrested that day were being held.

“He assaulted several civilians, including a Catholic priest, Terence O’Keeffe.

“He then stood a 16-year-old boy, Denis McLaughlin, up against a gas blow heater until he fainted and collapsed.

“What did he do then? He kicked the young fella to his feet and asked him whether he wanted a drink. When the young man answered that he did, he spat in his mouth.

“A few months later, on 7 September 1972, Soldier F went to the Shankill Road—we do not hear that from Unionist politicians, by the way—and admitted shooting a Protestant man called Robert Johnston.

“He lied again, saying that Robert was a gunman. He was not, and the coroner’s court made that absolutely clear. Robert Johnston was totally innocent as well.

“I have never once heard a Unionist politician, or anybody in this House, stand up for Robert Johnston and the other man killed on that day”.

He added: “There was one reason that I and the Bloody Sunday families accepted the verdict (on Soldier F).

“It was because the point was made absolutely clear: between 1970 and 1974, the British Government, the British Army, the Royal Military Police and the RUC were engaged in a cover-up of mass proportions, when any single member of the British Army who was arrested was questioned without legal representation and not under caution.

“That meant that any of those cases were doomed before we even got started.

“What I am laying out in this House today—and the hon. and learned Member (Jim Allister) might not like it—is not whether or not there was a conviction in the court; I am laying out the truth, not as I see it but as Soldier F admitted it, and as was found by an international inquiry of truth that was set up by the Labour Government and accepted by them as well.

“It was also accepted by Prime Minister Cameron, who said that what happened on that day was ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’.

“Then, we see the British Government and the MOD paying at least £4.3 million to defend somebody whose actions they knew were unjustified and unjustifiable.

“That is the truth. Those are the facts.”