A senior police officer refused to go on patrol with soldiers in sensitive areas of Derry because of their lack of discipline, it was revealed tonight.
Chief Inspector Douglas Hogg, who was a constable during Bloody Sunday, said that when he was later promoted to inspector of the RUC's Mobile Support Unit, he realised that his men were more disciplined than members of the Army.
"My men would not even have fired a rubber bullet without my order. I also found that some of the RUC units which were dispatched had a similar attitude to the Army and did not deal with things as sensitively as my units did.
"While I was inspector of the Mobile Support Unit, I refused to go into the Bogside or Creggan areas with the Army. This was because of their lack of discipline."
Mr Hogg's comments, which were reported at today's Bloody Sunday tribunal, were made during an interview with Eversheds, solicitors to the inquiry.
The chief inspector later withdrew this paragraph when he submitted his own statement to the tribunal but today said he stood by the comments.
Questioned by Mr Seamus Treacy QC, counsel for some of the families, Mr Hogg said: "I am happy to agree with that opinion today if you wish me to do so."
He added he had taken this out of his statement because he did not believe it was relevant to the events of January 30th 1972.
But Mr Treacy countered: "Was it because you realised that paragraph would not be helpful to the case being made by the Army and you chose to take it out on that account."
In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Hogg said his duties as a constable were to liaise with the army in carrying out roadside checks.
"Since the late 1960s primary responsibility for this job had been handed over to the army," he said.
"I didn't necessarily agree with this and found that the army didn't do things the way I would have chosen to do them."
He said there had been a lot of talk among police officers prior to the civil rights march which led to the deaths of 13 civilians.
A 14th man, John Johnston, died a few months later as a result of his injuries.
"We had heard on the grapevine that Frank Lagan, the Chief Superintendent, had advised the army not to block off the route of the march.
"I remember speaking to Frank Lagan about the events of Bloody Sunday some time later. He believed that you should never block people into a corner in these situations and that you should always allow a large crowd an escape route," he said.
Mr Hogg said that after Bloody Sunday there was no sense of elation among the RUC officers. "We were particularly concerned that RUC advice had been ignored and as a result 13 local people were dead," he added.
PA