The head of the SAS in 1972 has claimed none of his soldiers were deployed in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
General Sir Peter de la Billiere has told the Saville Inquiry in his written testimony that the SAS under his control were not deployed in Northern Ireland at all in 1971 or 1972.
His evidence emerged yesterday (Wednesday) when a former military police officer told the inquiry that one of the prisoners arrested on Bloody Sunday was an SAS captain.
The former military police corporal, told the inquiry he was sent to Derry's Fort George army barracks on the evening of Bloody Sunday.
He told the inquiry: "I saw a prisoner trying to climb out of one of the pens. I physically pushed him back in... later on.. I saw him chatting to our major and having a cup of tea with him.
He had identified himself as a captain and an undercover SAS officer who had been living with the civilians and who had been arrested with them."
Questioned by a lawyer for the majority of British soldiers, the former military policeman said the officer must have told him personally that he was in the SAS otherwise he would not have known. But in his statement, shown to the Inquiry yesterday, General Sir Peter de la Billiere was adamant that the SAS had not been deployed.
