The forensic scientist, who linked most of the Bloody Sunday victims shot dead in the Bogside 30 years ago with the use of weapons, yesterday disputed his own findings.
Dr John Martin's conclusion that seven of the victims either fired a gun, handled a gun or been beside a gunman when they were killed led Lord Widgery to conclude at the original Bloody Sunday Inquiry that they had either handled a gun or been beside a gunman. It would be unwise to interpret his findings at the time as anything other than due to contamination, he admitted yesterday. A principal scientific officer with the Department of Industrial and Forensic Science at the time of Bloody Sunday, Dr Martin told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that when he prepared his original report, he thought only 30 shots had been fired by paratroopers.
"When I did the tests and prepared my report for Widgery, I was under the impression that 20 to 30 shots had been fired and that the bodies had been transferred in clean conditions to the mortuary," the now retired forensic scientist said. "It was only at my cross examination that I became aware that over 100 shots had been fired, greatly increasing both the overall levels of gunshot residues in the immediate environment and the possibility of fragmentation. In addition, at least some of the bodies had been handled and transported in a way that could have resulted in contamination by gunshot residue," he said.
He agreed it was "probably fair enough" to say that at the time of his tests, he was invited to produce evidence that the victims had been associated with fire arms. He denied this amounted to "a corruption of the process".