Soldier F was granted anonymity by a judge concluding that “a real risk does exist” to Soldier F’s life and that he was right to “feel genuine fear”.[36]
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood controversially used parliamentary privilege to name Soldier F in the House of Commons on 13 July 2021, stating that “for 50 years he has been granted anonymity and now the government want to grant him an amnesty”, and that “no one involved in murder during the Troubles should be granted an amnesty.”[37][38] Eastwood stated that he received death threats for doing so.[39]Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, said that Eastwood “broke no rules” in doing so.[38] Soldier F’s name “appeared on the Bogside’s iconic Free Derry Corner and was widely known in Derry” when Eastwood named him.[40]
On 9 February 2022, Peadar Tóibín named Soldier F in the Dáil Éireann, stating that “we need to make sure that people know” the names of “the alphabet of British Army perpetrators of murder”.[41]Dáil privilege protects him from being sued for defamation.[42]
News media such as the BBC and The Journal did not name Soldier F for legal reasons.[38][41]
Hearty, K. (2025). ‘Standing with Soldier F’: Bloody Sunday, disrupting the degradation ceremony and the court of public opinion. Punishment & Society, 27(1), 109-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745241264297
There’s an edit war taking place about putting Soldier F’s name in the article. It’s pretty easy to find with web search including in an Irish magazine that editorializes against him but is still probably RS. I won’t get into it here myself but the magazine also accuses the trial judge of presiding over a cover-up. ~2026-38271-65 (talk) 19:36, 4 July 2026 (UTC)
The RFC was about a single article, not “any” article, and it was inconclusive, but thanks for the link. I’d say that if the name becomes widely published (right now it’s published but not widely) then continuing to suppress it would be pointless. On a separate matter, I’d be interested to see more in the article about the legal particulars in the trial (I’m in the US and don’t know how UK trials work). E.g. why wasn’t there a jury? Anyway I just heard about this case and don’t want to linger on it too much since it’s outside my usual topic areas, but there are things that could be said. It’s interesting that Soldier G’s name is also still suppressed. Soldier G participated in the incident alongside Soldier F, but he died sometime later. ~2026-38271-65 (talk) 20:05, 4 July 2026 (UTC)
Per WP:ONUS it’s up to those wishing to include to obtain consensus, and the idea that the RFC somehow doesn’t apply to another directly related article won’t fly. The trial was non-jury as a result of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007. Essentially, there was a fear that any nationalists would automatically vote to convict whereas any unionists would vote to acquit. So rather than end up with a deadlocked jury it’s seen as fairer to let a judge decide. FDW777 (talk) 20:15, 4 July 2026 (UTC)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Soldier_F
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ATrial_of_Soldier_F#Research_article