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January 30th, 1972 remains arguably the most fatal – and significant – days in three decades of conflict in this area.

In the streets where events unfolded – the legacy of that fateful day are visible on the structures and embedded in people's minds.

A civil rights march was organized on a cold but bright afternoon in the city.

The demonstration was challenging the practice of imprisonment without charges – holding suspects without due process – which had been put in place in response to multiple years of conflict.

Military personnel from the specialized division shot dead thirteen individuals in the Bogside area – which was, and still is, a overwhelmingly Irish nationalist area.

One image became particularly iconic.

Images showed a religious figure, Fr Edward Daly, displaying a bloodied white handkerchief as he tried to defend a group carrying a teenager, the injured teenager, who had been fatally wounded.

Journalists recorded considerable film on the day.

Documented accounts includes Fr Daly telling a media representative that soldiers "appeared to shoot indiscriminately" and he was "absolutely certain" that there was no provocation for the discharge of weapons.

This account of events was rejected by the initial investigation.

The initial inquiry determined the soldiers had been shot at first.

In the negotiation period, the ruling party established another inquiry, after campaigning by surviving kin, who said the first investigation had been a whitewash.

In 2010, the report by the inquiry said that generally, the paratroopers had initiated shooting and that not one of the individuals had been armed.

The then government leader, David Cameron, issued an apology in the House of Commons – declaring deaths were "without justification and unjustifiable."

Law enforcement started to investigate the matter.

One former paratrooper, identified as the accused, was prosecuted for homicide.

He was charged concerning the deaths of one victim, in his twenties, and in his mid-twenties the second individual.

The accused was further implicated of seeking to harm several people, Joseph Friel, further individuals, Michael Quinn, and an unnamed civilian.

Exists a judicial decision protecting the soldier's anonymity, which his legal team have claimed is required because he is at danger.

He told the Saville Inquiry that he had only fired at persons who were carrying weapons.

The statement was dismissed in the final report.

Evidence from the inquiry would not be used immediately as evidence in the court case.

In court, the accused was shielded from sight behind a blue curtain.

He made statements for the opening instance in the hearing at a hearing in that month, to reply "not guilty" when the charges were put to him.

Relatives of those who were killed on that day travelled from Londonderry to Belfast Crown Court every day of the trial.

John Kelly, whose brother Michael was fatally wounded, said they always knew that attending the trial would be difficult.

"I visualize all details in my mind's eye," he said, as we walked around the main locations discussed in the proceedings – from the location, where his brother was shot dead, to the nearby the area, where one victim and the second person were died.

"It reminds me to where I was that day.

"I assisted with Michael and put him in the vehicle.

"I went through each detail during the proceedings.

"Notwithstanding enduring all that – it's still valuable for me."