A former paratrooper who claims his colleagues killed 13 unarmed civil rights marchers without justification is "motivated by money", the Bloody Sunday inquiry was told yesterday.
The controversial eyewitness testimony of soldier 027, the radio operator with 1 Para who started his evidence last week, is part of a protection package paid for by the Northern Ireland Office.
Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, counsel for many of the British paratroopers who opened fire in Derry on January 30th, 1972, killing 13 unarmed civil rights marchers, told 027: "A substantial part of your motivation for giving evidence to this inquiry is money because you have driven a very, very hard bargain to be here, 027, have you not?"
Under the package, soldier 027 received £20,000 for a deposit on a new house and £1,400 a month in lieu of wages, £6,000 to buy a car and £100 a month for life insurance cover over the past two years. The deal ends after his evidence to the inquiry is completed.
The hearing, currently sitting in London, was adjourned until today before soldier 027 could respond to the allegation. Dozens of other soldiers are expected to flatly contradict his account and say they fired within rules of engagement and only at threatening targets. Soldier 027, whom it is believed fears retribution from his former colleagues, has told the inquiry that he did not see a single gunman or bomber.
Mr Glasgow painted a picture of soldier 027 as a paratrooper in Belfast, then aged 19, who would resort to lies and fantasy, including claims that he broke the law, to boost his reputation in the army.
"Not only were you prepared to exaggerate the accounts of other people's actions, you had even gone, at this stage, to the lengths that you were boasting about the kind of things you had done that you had never done. The fantasy had got that grip of you."
Mr Glasgow, who has yet to question him on the detail of Bloody Sunday, said he had admitted telling different lies at different times of the events leading up to and including Bloody Sunday. Soldier 027 has told the inquiry he has been told that some had allegedly been made up to protect fellow soldiers, but Mr Glasgow suggested that he was driven by "bravado".
"How many of the lies that you have told about them [your fellow paratroopers] are you now willing to withdraw?" Mr Glasgow. "A significant amount of bravado and tale-telling goes on, particularly among soldiers; that is a fact of life. You are not the only one who has told exaggerated tales of your own activities. It is something that goes on, rightly or wrongly."
Soldier 027 earlier said he was not driven by money but by a deep-seated need to correct the official British line on Bloody Sunday which had "swept under the carpet and distorted" events that day. He denied that he had cashed in on the tragedy. The £100 he was paid for a Channel 4 interview in 1997 was "unsolicited", he told the inquiry.
Earlier yesterday the inquiry was told that paratroopers on Bloody Sunday probably also beat up and left for dead two innocent Catholic men a couple of days later.
Mr Séamus Treacy QC, counsel for many of the bereaved families, wanted soldier 027 to answer questions about other beatings and killings in which the paras were suspects. Both attacks occurred in Belfast in 1972 where the paras were based. Raymond Muldoon and Francis Creagh were kidnapped, beaten and then left for dead on the Shankill Road in February.
Lord Saville blocked the request saying he was "extremely dubious" of its relevance. The incident happened more than seven months after Bloody Sunday and would need "an inquiry within an inquiry" to investigate properly, he said.
- (PA)