An ex-RUC officer who spotted a nail bomb in the pocket of a teenager killed on Bloody Sunday today dismissed claims that the explosives were planted by soldiers.
Mr Eugene McTeggart told the Saville Inquiry he was stationed at an Army checkpoint in Derry when he saw a car carrying the body of 17-year-old Gerard Donaghy.
Giving evidence about his role during the January 1972 atrocity when Paratroopers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians, Mr McTeggart said he noticed a nail bomb sticking out of the dead youth's trouser pocket.
Despite vehement claims by the victim's family that he was not carrying any devices, the former detective sergeant rejected their argument.
He said: "I know it has been suggested that the nail bombs were planted on the body after the Army took possession of the white Cortina with red flashes. For me, this is very hard to believe as I do not know how soldiers in a strange place in Derry would have been able to get access to such nail bombs."
The car with Gerard Donaghy had been stopped leaving the Bogside on its way to hospital by soldiers who ordered the driver and another passenger out before security forces got in.
They then drove it to another checkpoint at Craigavon Bridge where Mr McTeggart was manning a detention centre.
But Mr Séamus Treacy QC for the Donaghy family, insisted there was an opportunity to put devices in the teenager's pockets.
Mr McTeggart accepted his argument, admitting: "They certainly would, sir, if they were bad enough."
Expecting to be called before a coroner's inquest, the former detective had drawn sketches of the body slumped in the car. He kept his notebook with the drawing until he suffered a heart attack 18 months ago.
Thinking he was going to die, Mr McTeggart said he decided to burn all his records rather than leave names and addresses from investigations he been involved in lying around.
"There was no ulterior motive as to their destruction but I did not want to leave such information behind me," he said.
Quizzed by Mr Treacy about why he made no mention of his sketches in his statement to the original Widgery tribunal in 1972, Mr McTeggart could give no full explanation.
"The only thing I can say to you is that if I had appeared at the tribunal, I was going to have to present my notebook and my evidence to the court and that would have been done," he said.
The horror of what he witnessed on Bloody Sunday left him vowing to quit the police.
Ordered to go to the morgue at Altnagelvin Hospital on the day, he recalled: "I had dealt with many bad things in my time as an RUC officer, but this was the most shocking scene I had ever witnessed.
"It had such an effect on me that subsequently I decided to resign from the RUC despite the fact that I loved the job."
Eventually, he transferred to an instructor's job within the force.
Fighting back tears as he gave evidence at Derry's Guildhall, Mr McTeggart recalled distraught relatives shouting and crying.
A police colleague in charge of identifying the bodies went to sympathise with one family only to be thumped in the face by a girl.
"I thought this was awful, but the constable said he understood and said to me ‘What if it was your brother lying on that table?’".
PA