The British army's new GOC in the North, Lieut Gen Sir Rupert Smith (52), was not in Derry on Bloody Sunday, a spokesman at the British army's Northern Ireland head quarters at Lisburn said yesterday.
Sir Rupert, who has been in the Parachute Regiment of over 30 years, served with the regiment in the North during the 1970s. An army spokesman said that Sir Rupert was not present in Derry when regiment members shot dead 13 civilians in the Bogside on January 31st, 1972.
