New Delhi, Oct. 23 -- The only British soldier ever charged in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre will learn his fate Thursday in a Northern Ireland courtroom.

Judge Patrick Lynch is due to deliver his verdict in Belfast Crown Court on whether the former paratrooper identified only as Soldier F committed murder and attempted murder in the deadliest shooting of the three decades of sectarian violence known as "The Troubles."

Prosecutors said the lance corporal, who has not been named to protect him from retaliation, killed two people and tried to kill five others when he and other troops fired at fleeing unarmed civilians on Jan. 20, 1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry.

Thirteen people were killed and 15 were wounded in the event tha...