Bloody Sunday Inquiry: Contradictory evidence about the presence of nail bombs on the body of one of the 13 civilians killed in Derry on Bloody Sunday was given to the Saville inquiry yesterday.
A former captain in the Royal Anglian Regiment, who was a locum medical officer on the day, told the inquiry that he medically examined the body of teenager Gerard Donaghy twice, but saw none of the four nail bombs that were later found in the youth's jacket and jeans pockets.
However, another witness, Mr John Wood, who was then a warrant officer with the RMP's Special Investigations Branch, said that when he saw the body of Gerard Donaghy in the back of a car after the medical officer had examined it, he saw two nail bombs inside the youth's jacket pockets.
The inquiry had previously been told that the soldier who drove the fatally-wounded Gerard Donaghy to a British army medical post in the immediate aftermath of the killings in the Bogside area of Derry had not seen any devices on the youth's body, nor had a number of civilians - among them a doctor - who had treated the youth minutes after he had been shot.
The former medical officer told the inquiry's three judges that when Donaghy's body was driven into the army medical post, it was clear that the youth was already dead. The witness said he twice examined the body to check for signs of life, but found none. After his first examination, he was called to examine two other men, Paddy Campbell and Joe Friel, who had been wounded in the Bogside shootings, and he then returned to the car containing Gerry Donaghy's body 10 minutes later.
He told the inquiry's three judges that he then re-examined the youth before formally declaring him to be dead.
"At that time, I had not seen a nail bomb. I did not know what a nail bomb was," he said. "I would have noticed something in his trousers, but I can be less certain regarding the jacket as that was not the focus of my examination. It, however, would have been extraordinary if I had not seen nail bombs," he added.
The witness said he did not learn about the nail bombs, which contained over 6 lbs of explosives, until after he had completed his second examination.
Meanwhile Mr Wood said that he received a report on the evening of the Bloody Sunday shootings that a body with nail bombs on it had been taken into the army medical post. By the time he arrived on the scene, the car had been removed from inside the post to a nearby carpark where it was being examined by an army technical officer.
Mr. Wood said he approached the car and saw the body of a "youngish chap" on the back seat.
"His denim jacket was done up and I could just see the tip of a nail bomb in each of the top jacket pockets, I could see the fuses sticking up out of the pockets," he said.
The witness said he then saw "something bulging" out of the youth's trouser pockets.