A former British Army lawyer has denied there was any attempt to cover up potentially damaging evidence from soldiers Bloody Sunday.
Lieutenant Colonel Colin Overbury was giving evidence to the long-running Saville Inquiry which is seeking to determine how British troops shot dead 14 people at a civil rights march in Derry on January 30th, 1972.
Lieutenant Colonel Overbury spent the day detailing his role in the collection of witness statements and other evidence presented to the initial Widgery inquiry in 1972, which exonerated the paratroopers who opened fire on the protesters.
In his evidence, he said he understood there might be an allegation that the interviewing of soldiers, which he participated in, had been carried out to make sure all their stories corresponded.
"If such an allegation is made, it is untrue. I would remember if any attempt had been made to put such pressure on any of the soldiers at any of the interviews at which I was present."
"I do not remember this. If I had witnessed such pressure, I would have put a stop to it...The purpose of interviewing the soldiers was to find out the
Lawyers representing the families of those killed and wounded questioned Lieutenant Colonel Overbury about discrepancies between the original statements given by some paratroopers immediately after the shootings and those later given for the first inquiry.
Lord Gifford QC, acting for the family of dead protester James Wray, said there was a common thread between three of the statements.
"Each of them give evidence of an illegal shooting and each of them in your hand modify their accounts quite substantially," he said.
Inquiry chair Lord Saville said Overbury's evidence was that "he certainly does not begin to accept that he may have suggested to these soldiers that it was a good idea to add some further detail to what they said before."
At one point Saville noted an initial statement from one soldier in which he said he shot a man after seeing him throw a petrol bomb. Saville said this could appear to be "a very damaging admission" but said that the soldier's final statemnt to the Widgery probe, "virtually completely removes that damaging submission".
PA