A soldier who fired a total of 22 shots in Derry on Bloody Sunday yesterday denied that he was a "systematic liar" and that he was a member of a "murder squad" on the day paratroopers shot dead 13 civilians and wounded 13 others.
Known as Soldier H, the witness also told the inquiry into the January 30th, 1972, shootings that, although he had given perjured evidence to the original Widgery inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday, no one in the British army had ever drawn that to his attention.
When told by Mr Seamus Treacy QC, who represents most of the victims' families, that people had been "drummed out" of the army for a lot less, Soldier H said he could not comment on that remark.
The witness, who was a 20- year-old paratrooper on Bloody Sunday, also dismissed Mr Treacy's claim that he shot unarmed people on the day that the Parachute Regiment was deployed into the Bogside area of Derry.
"I want to suggest to you, Soldier H, just before I sit down, that you were a systematic liar in 1972 and that you are still a systematic liar and that the evidence you have given to this inquiry is completely untrue and that you have failed to account for a large number of shots on the day.
And that the reason you have failed to account for those large number of shots is that you may well have killed and injured many other people on that day than you are admitting to," the barrister said.
Soldier H: That is a lie, sir.
In his evidence, the former paratrooper said that he shot two nailbombers in Glenfada Park and that he also fired 19 aimed shots at the silhouette of a gunman he had seen behind a window in the same street, although he admitted that none of his shots had shattered the window.
Questioned by Lord Gifford QC, who represents the family of Jim Wray, who was shot twice in the back in Glenfada Park, the witness said he was one of four soldiers deployed.
"I spent a lot of years trying to forget this, and age again has caught up with me like it has done with everybody and, you know, I have tried to forget about it. I have tried to put it out of my mind. It is not a nice thing to remember, I did not want to remember it," Soldier H said.
The witness said one of the shots he fired at two nail-bombers in Glenfada Park was aimed at his target's "centre back" and he believed the bullet hit his target in the right shoulder. He admitted that his target was posing no threat and running away from him.
He described Lord Gifford's claim that he fired at an already wounded man lying on the ground as "similar to what I read in a lot of cowboy books" and denied the barrister's assertion that he was a member of a four man "death squad".