Counsel representing British soldiers accepted that the first person they shot on Bloody Sunday had not thrown a nail-bomb at them.
Damien "Bubbles" Donaghy, then 15 years old, was shot in the leg near William Street. Soldiers nearby have claimed they fired on someone who appeared to be lighting the fuse of a nailbomb.
Yesterday Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, who represents a large number of soldiers, including two who fired in the William Street area, told Mr Donaghy: "I should make plain to you that I have not suggested, and I do not suggest to you, that you threw a nail-bomb on Bloody Sunday."
However, counsel put it to Mr Donaghy, who was giving evidence yesterday, that he would not have been shot "unless you or somebody very close to you did something which led to soldiers almost simultaneously, independently and honestly, to believe that you, or whoever it was, was in the process of being about to throw a nail-bomb".
The witness replied: "You have made your position clear, but you are wrong." Mr Donaghy, before beginning his evidence, told the tribunal that he now admitted throwing stones, with others, at soldiers stationed in a derelict building on William Street.
He had decided on this admission after discussions with his legal representatives "and because the main reason we are here is for the truth to be told". He added that when he was shot he did not have a nail-bomb or anything else in his hands.
He told Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the tribunal, that he had previously denied throwing stones because he was afraid he would be charged with rioting, and he also feared an admission might give the soldiers "credibility for shooting me".
Mr Clarke read to the witness a statement supplied by one of the soldiers who fired on that occasion. It stated: "Two nail bombs were then thrown and they exploded very close to us."
Mr Donaghy replied: "That is lies." He said nothing was being thrown on that occasion that might have appeared to be a nail- bomb. No petrol bombs or nail- bombs were thrown and he did not see anybody around him with any sort of weapon.
Ms Maureen Gallagher, who was a 21-year-old Knights of Malta volunteer at the time, described attending the Civil Rights march on January 30th, 1972, with another Knights of Malta member, Rosemary Doyle.
It would have been clear to everyone that they were Knights of Malta because they were wearing white overalls with a red cross and carrying white kitbags which also had a red cross, she said.
Ms Gallagher said that after being called to help two people who had been shot, they were crossing Rossville Street when they saw three Saracen armoured personnel carriers heading slowly towards them.
"It seemed to me that, as soon as they saw us, they charged at us," she said. "A rubber bullet was fired from the first Saracen. I felt it skim past my right cheek. It missed me and I heard Rosemary cry `I'm hit.' The rubber bullet had hit (her) on her left cheek and the left-hand side of her neck."
The witness said that at this point she heard a voice shout from the first Saracen: "Leave them, we'll get them on the way back."
Mr Larry Doherty, a retired press photographer, told the inquiry that in his capacity as a photographer for the Derry Journal he attended a press briefing by a British army press officer at the City Hotel the night before Bloody Sunday.
He said the officer had recommended that photographers in particular should all go into the Bogside behind the army rather than take pictures from the other side, "because the army is going in hard".
Mr Doherty said he took up to 50 photographs during the events on Bloody Sunday. He took pictures of the injured Damien Donaghy and John Johnston, and also of the bodies of Gerry McKinney and Barney McGuigan.
Because of the forthcoming 29th anniversary of Bloody Sunday on Tuesday, the inquiry will not resume hearings until Wednesday.
The acknowledgement by the soldiers' legal representative that he was not a nail-bomber was welcomed last night by Mr Donaghy, who is the first Bloody Sunday victim to receive such personal exoneration at the inquiry.
"At last the truth has come out about me," he said. "I'm satisfied, but also a bit angry that it took 29 years. I hope the truth is told about everybody else who was shot by the army too."
Mr Donaghy, who was 15 when the bullet tore through his thigh, breaking his femur, spent six months in hospital and many more on crutches, and was fitted with a caliper. He also had several operations. He told the inquiry yesterday that he viewed what had happened to him as attempted murder.
Now married, with four children, Mr Donaghy said he was still affected by the injury and could not bend the leg that was hit.
"I've never had a steady job since," he said. "I could never really do any heavy work." He had been sent on various training schemes and had worked for a time in a shoe shop, but was now unemployed.
Mr John Kelly, of the Bloody Sunday Trust, welcomed the admission by counsel. "After 29 years the stigma of being accused of being a nail-bomber has been removed from him," said Mr Kelly. "That is certainly heartening, and I hope it marks the start of a process of acknowledging the innocence of all the victims."