The officer in charge of one of the key barricades on Bloody Sunday has told the Saville Inquiry he does not recall hearing any live shooting before the Paras deployed from William Street into the Bogside. Identified as INQ 2079, the officer was a major and was in charge of a company of the second battalion of the Royal Green Jackets on Bloody Sunday.
The officer told the inquiry that the checkpoint he was placed in charge of was at William Street and was the main barricade used to prevent the Bloody Sunday marchers from reaching the city centre.
He recalled speaking to representatives of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights' Association but claimed the conversation was taken over by a riot.
"It was not long before missiles started to be thrown. One of the early ones hit me on the chin, causing some blood," he said.
While a large number of missiles were thrown at his position, INQ 2079 said there were no bombs of any description.
"I do not recall hearing any live shooting before One Para deployed through barrier 14 (William Street)," he said.
The witness said he was quite happy when he heard the Parachute Regiment was to be used on Bloody Sunday as a reserve battalion. But he expressed concern that the Paras had to deal with different circumstances in Belfast where they were normally based.
"The Paras were coming in from a different type of war. Belfast was a shooting war; they did not have rioting all day as we did. The Paras could not deploy in Londonderry and know all that we did," he said.
The former officer told the inquiry he could not be sure of his memory of events. He said he did not know how much his memory was affected by the passage of time, by media coverage or by medication which he was taking.
Another witness, identified as INQ 25, told the inquiry yesterday (Tuesday) of an incident involving a man who was wounded on Bloody Sunday.
A saxophonist with the army band, the witness confirmed details of the incident at William Street which have already been revealed by civilian witnesses. He said an army colleague struck the man, splitting his head, at a taxi rank at William Street.
"A baldish priest intervened and I remember him saying "For God's sake, he's been shot!" At that stage the man then opened up his overcoat and I could see that he was wounded," he recalled.
Witness claims priest was smuggling out dead bodies
One of the first Parachute Regiment soldiers deployed on Bloody Sunday yesterday outlined his former comrades' philosophy to the Saville Inquiry. A sergeant in the first battalion of the Parachute Regiment, the soldier – identified as INQ 488 – said he was one of the first soldiers to pass through an army barricade at Derry's William Street on Bloody Sunday.
He told the inquiry: "We had a philosophy in the battalion that if someone attacked us, we would aggressively make arrests but we would always act in accordance with the yellow card (which governed when a soldier could open fire).
"In a riot some regiments would just stand by and take it whereas we would go in and make arrests to break up the riot. We did not believe that soldiers were cannon fodder."
He told the inquiry that he slipped and fell as he went over a barricade. When he got up he saw that another company was in front of him. "I then saw Support Company and thought "Jammy bastards getting there first," he said.
Just before he reached Rossville Street, the witness claimed he heard low velocity shots followed by high velocity fire.
The witness also claimed he heard that a priest – whom he named as Fr Daly – was trying to "smuggle dead bodies out" but he acknowledged that he did not know if this was correct. No evidence of this has ever been presented.
