Bloody Sunday Inquiry: The Parachute Regiment officer who commanded a platoon of 17 paratroopers in the Glenfada Park area of Derry on Bloody Sunday yesterday denied he had "turned a blind eye" to the activities of his men who fired 46 of the 108 shots discharged by the British army on the day.
Three civilians were shot dead and three others wounded in the Glenfada Park area on January 30th, 1972, when paratroopers opened fire on civil rights marchers.
The lieutenant said he neither saw nor heard any of the soldiers under his command opening fire, and he believed his men were "in total control".
Mr Arthur Harvey QC, who represents several of the families of the Bloody Sunday victims, put it to him that the soldiers he commanded could have shot up to 18 civilians. The former lieutenant, known as Soldier 119, said he believed his own conduct and the conduct of the NCOs who commanded little groups of soldiers "was as it should be".
Mr Harvey put it to him that there were only three explanations as to how he had failed to see his men open fire.
"Firstly, you were not there at all, but these events happened in front of your eyes.
"Another explanation is in fact that you saw everything and decided that discretion would be a better policy to follow, leaving each individual soldier to account for each shot that he claimed to have discharged without the complication of the intrusion of the truth that you know.
"The third possible explanation is that, as an officer in command of the 17 persons, that that was nominal and not real, and that you had no control over them and chose to turn quite literally a blind eye to what was occurring around you."
Soldier 119 said, however, he did not accept Mr Harvey's contention that he had witnessed his "soldiers engage in wholesale bloody murder and you have chosen to keep the truth completely registered within your own heart and mind and just allow each of the soldiers to sink or swim according to their own evidence".
The inquiry was adjourned until Monday.