Wounded man shot dead as he lay helpless on the ground

Counsel to the inquiry outlined the report of two forensic consultants, Dr R.T

Counsel to the inquiry outlined the report of two forensic consultants, Dr R.T. Shepherd and Mr Kevin O'Callaghan, who were commissioned to examine the pathological and ballistic evidence.

In the case of Mr Jim Wray there were two bullet wounds entering the back, and the consultants concluded that two bullets fired from his right struck him. The nature of one exit wound was such that the most likely explanation was that Mr Wray lay on his left side when he suffered that wound.

Mr McKinney was also shot in the right side of the back, according to the consultants' report. Counsel remarked: "It is, of course, in the right back that a civilian at the south end of Glenfada Park North would, in all probability, have been shot if he was shot by soldiers coming in from the north-east of Glenfada Park and was fleeing from them or turning away from them towards the south-west."

There was further evidence on the shooting of Mr Jim Wray while he lay on the ground, counsel added. He read the statement of Mr Paddy McCauley, who was also running in the vicinity.

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Mr McCauley said that at one point he glimpsed a soldier with his foot on the body of a man lying on his side in the south-western corner of Glenfada Park. The soldier had the muzzle of his rifle pointing towards the rib cage of the fallen man.

Mr McCauley then saw a man he now knows to have been Gerard McKinney, running towards this scene with his hands in the air and shouting "Do not shoot" or "Do not shoot him".

The witness continued: "In what seemed to me to be one movement, the soldier shot Jim Wray, then spun to his right and, with his rifle at hip level, shot in the direction of myself and Gerard McKinney.

"I saw the soldier's gun recoil as he shot Jim Wray . . . As turned and shot in my direction, I dropped to the ground and, at the same time, I heard Gerard McKinney go `Ugh' as, I believe, he was hit. He fell down on the stone steps . . . and lay sprawled."

Mr McCauley said he believed the same soldier would have shot him "if I had not been so small in stature and looked so young. Although I was 16, I looked more like a 12-year-old."

Mr Malachy Coyle, who was also 16 at the time, described how he was pulled by "a bald man" into the backyard of a house on Glenfada Park when the shooting started.

As he peered through a wooden fence into the car-park he could see three people on the ground. The closest person was still alive. "I remember that he raised his head from the pavement and looked directly at the bald man and me and said: `I cannot move my legs'.

"By this point I know that I was in a state of complete shock . . . I can remember talking to the bald man in the backyard with me. He was saying `Keep calm, keep calm'.

"I must have had a premonition that something really awful was going to happen, as I remember saying to the wounded man: `Do not move. Pretend you are dead'.

"It was moments later that I heard a shot . . . I saw the pavement near the wounded man explode in sparks. At the same time, I heard the wounded man groan and I saw his head . . . go down slowly towards the pavement. He did not move again and I knew he was dead . . . I found out later that he was Jim Wray."

A number of other witnesses also saw Jim Wray fall and several described seeing his coat "lift up" as he was apparently hit by another bullet.

The hearing continues today.