A soldier denied today that he physically and verbally abused civilians "on a spectacular scale" in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier INQ 12 told the Saville Inquiry in London he used bad language while making arrests but denied the allegations of 11 people who claimed he abused them.
The former paratrooper arrested a number of people in a house in Chamberlain Street in the nationalist Bogside area on January 30th, 1972 when 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead. A 14th man died later.
Mr Alan Roxburgh, counsel to the inquiry, put allegations of abuse from 11 civilians who were taken from the house to the soldier, including that of Mr George Nelis who said he believed he was going to be shot.
In a statement to the inquiry, Mr Nelis said: "He told me he had been wounded in Belfast, but had got his revenge by killing four Irish men.
"He told me how he had shot two of them in the head, one of them in the chest and one of them in the balls.
"He then said to me that he was going to kill me as well today and that I would not see tomorrow or see my wife again."
Soldier INQ 12 denied he used offensive and intimidating language to Mr Nelis.
Mr Roxburgh asked: "But it is true, is it not, that you had been wounded in Belfast?"
"Yes, sir," the soldier replied.
Mr Roxburgh asked: "Do you have any idea how Mr Nelis could have known that unless he heard you say it?"
"No idea, sir," he replied.
The soldier also denied claims that he made racist remarks about Irish people, struck men with batons and the butt of his rifle and told dog handlers that the prisoners were fresh meat.
Mr Roxburgh asked: "I have shown you a large number of statements, in many of which you are accused of having used extremely offensive and intimidating language towards civilians and in a much smaller number of which there are allegations of relatively minor assaults.
"Do you have any idea how so many different people came to make those allegations against you if there is not a grain of truth in them?" "No, sir," he replied.
The soldier said in his statement to the inquiry: "Whilst I accept that I swore whilst trying to get people out of the house, it was not directed at, or personal to, any particular individual.
"I specifically and categorically deny saying that I had shot four people in Belfast.
"I have never shot anybody, and did not say that I had as a threat."
Soldier INQ 12 added: "I did not physically or verbally abuse anyone at the house, in the lorry, or at Fort George (Army camp). I regard these allegations as complete rubbish."
Mr Barry MacDonald, QC, representing most of the families of the bereaved and injured, asked the soldier if he was trying to get away with the fact that he had brutalised people in Chamberlain Street and at Fort George army camp.
"No, sir," he replied.
Mr MacDonald asked: "And that you abused them on a spectacular scale?" "No, sir," he replied.
The soldier also denied he tried to conceal the fact that he kicked a civilian as he lay on the ground a week before Bloody Sunday.
Soldier INQ 12's statement to the inquiry said he had not travelled outside Belfast before Bloody Sunday.
However, he admitted today he was involved in an army operation at Magilligan Beach in Derry to stop an illegal civil rights march the previous week.
The inquiry heard that arising from that incident, Soldier INQ 12 was the subject of an internal army inquiry which found he had kicked the man on the ground but the circumstances were such that he might easily and justifiably have lost his temper.
Soldier INQ 12 told the tribunal he was cleared of any wrongdoing, and when asked by Mr Roxburgh why he did not mention the incident in his original statement, he replied: "I forgot all about it, sir."
The soldier also denied a suggestion from Mr MacDonald that his account of seeing a gunman on the roof of a block of flats on Bloody Sunday was a "figment of his imagination".
Soldier INQ 12 was the 767th witness to appear before the Saville Inquiry.
PA