A former sergeant in the British Parachute Regiment was today accused of engaging in a conspiracy to cover up the murder of a young man on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier 014 told the Saville Inquiry that one of his colleagues was justified in shooting at a gunman who was seen "leopard crawling" towards the Rossville Flats in the Bogside.
The soldier, who was in charge of eight men on Bloody Sunday said that he and his colleagues saw two men crawling from the rubble barricade towards the entrance of one of the flats.
He said one of the soldiers from his section opened fire on the second man who was carrying a rifle, but he did not know if he was hit.
"I didn't give any orders but I did not have to. Faced with a man carrying a weapon who was about to be in a crowd of people in a matter of seconds, the soldier was justified in shooting," he added.
But he was accused of lying by Mr Brian McCartney a lawyer representing some of the families.
"I am going to suggest to you that really what happened here was: the two kids were crawling for their lives and such was the breakdown of order among you and your colleagues they were shot at," he said.
Mr McCartney pointed out that statements made by the soldiers after Bloody Sunday referred to the men "appearing" to be carrying weapons.
"This was a hurriedly concocted attempt to justify the murder of a young man and like all lies and stories that are concocted and invented to cover up the true nature of events, they began to unravel in the detail," he added.
The lawyer asked him if he had spoken to any of his colleagues before giving his statement to the Saville Inquiry.
He said many of the statements had similarly referred to the two men "leopard crawling" towards the flats, a term not used in statements to the Royal Military Police immediately after Bloody Sunday.
"It is intended to beef up the justification for shooting people or shooting at these people."
Questioned by Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, representing most of the military witnesses, Soldier 014 denied he had conspired with colleagues to conceal a murder.
Meanwhile, a former lance bombardier in the Light Air Defence Regiment described how he had shot a sniper who opened fire on them from a derelict building during Bloody Sunday.
Soldier Z said the incident occurred in the late afternoon: "We heard an almighty crack above our heads. It landed approximately 12 feet over our heads."
The soldier, who was in Sackville Street in the fringe of the Bogside said he could see a gunman around 300 yards away in the window of a building in Abbey Street.
"He went down into a semi-crouched position. I saw him swivel down and I was able to identify in his hand what I thought was a rifle of some description," he said.
He said he knelt down and fired a tracer shot at the gunman. "The tracer hit the centre of the gunman's body in the bottom left hand corner of the window and I knew I had scored a hit. The man fell backwards into the building."
PA