A Bloody Sunday paratrooper said yesterday that he could not explain why he failed to see the deaths of a majority of the civilians shot dead by his colleagues in the Bogside area of Derry on January 30th, 1972.
Thirteen civilians were killed and 13 others wounded when members of the lst Battalion of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights marchers on Bloody Sunday. One of the paratroopers who was deployed into the Bogside told the inquiry yesterday that although he was in the immediate vicinity of most of the killings and woundings, he neither saw any of the civilians being shot nor did he see any of his colleagues firing their rifles.
The former soldier, known as Soldier J, described two other paratroopers who shot several of the civilians as "probably two of the most bravest soldiers I ever served with".
He denied an allegation by counsel to the inquiry, Mr Christopher Clarke QC, that some of the military firing on Bloody Sunday was "indiscriminate and unjustified firing" that had to be covered up by the paratroopers.
Soldier J told the inquiry that he fired at and missed two nail-bombers close to a rubble barricade in Rossville Street in the Bogside. However, he said he did not see the killings of Michael Kelly, John Young, William Nash and Hugh Gilmour, all of whom were shot beside the same barricade.
The witness also told Mr Clarke that he did not witness the killings of six other victims and the woundings of seven other men in the area immediately around the barricade, including Glenfada Park, Abbey Park and Joseph's Place.William McKinney, Michael McDaid, Jim Wray, Gerry Donaghy, Bernard McGuigan and Patrick Doherty all died in those areas.
MrClarke said that in three of the locations close to Soldier J's position on the day, six people were shot dead and seven others wounded by members of the regiment's anti-tank platoon, of which Soldier J was a member. The inquiry's counsel said that evidence given by Soldier J and other members of his platoon to the original Widgery Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, "does not fit the number of those who are known to have been shot and wounded, or the place and circumstances in which they were shot".
Soldier J said he could not explain that.
Soldier J apologised to the inquiry for initially denying that he was the anonymous Bloody Sunday paratrooper known as Soldier X who, in May 1999, had given an interview to the Daily Telegraph. The witness said he initially denied he was Soldier X because he felt his life and the lives of his family were "extremely vulnerable".