THE BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY/Day 192: The inquiry heard yesterday that it would not be able to take direct evidence from a key police witness who testified 30 years ago as to what took place in the British Army's operational headquarters in Derry on Bloody Sunday just before paratroops were sent into the Bogside.
The tribunal chairman, Lord Saville, announced that, in view of his state of health, it will not be possible to call former Chief Superintendent Frank Lagan to give oral evidence.
However, Mr Lagan, who retired from the RUC in 1976 and is now aged 85, has reaffirmed in a written statement to the inquiry his belief that violence on the day could have been "relatively contained" if the Civil Rights march had been allowed to proceed to the Guildhall as planned.
In the event, soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 civilians and wounded at least 15, one of whom died later, when they launched an "arrest operation" into the Bogside on the afternoon of January 30th, 1972.
Mr Lagan's statement also reasserts, very significantly, that he still believes the army commander on the day, Brig Pat MacLellan, accepted his (Lagan's) view that the paratroopers ought to be held back until there was a clear separation between the Civil Rights marchers and a smaller group of rioters.
He repeated that, as he told the Widgery Inquiry in 1972, Brig MacLellan said to him at one point: "The Paras want to go in", and he had replied: "For heaven's sake hold them until we're satisfied the marchers and the rioters are well separated".
Brig MacLellan then left the room and returned after a short interval and said: "I'm sorry, the Paras have gone in". Mr Lagan said he had never discussed with MacLellan the issue of whether he had personally sent the Paras in.
This crucial order was said at the Widgery Inquiry to have been given over a "secure radio link". But Mr Lagan says he cannot recall having any information that a secure link was in operation at that time, and he had not previously seen an army secure link in operation.
Mr Lagan, a Catholic who had 40 years service in the RUC when he retired, was the senior RUC officer in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday. He was jointly responsible with Brig MacLellan for security in the city, and he states that he had worked with the brigadier for several months before Bloody Sunday and felt confident about his relationship with him - "I felt that I could rely on him," his statement says.
He says that, in considering how to handle the big march expected on January 30th, it seemed to him that ongoing confrontations between the Protestant and Catholic populations might be triggered off if the march was stopped. He felt that by allowing the marchers to proceed to their destination, the police and army could identify many of the marchers by sight and through using photographers they could be prosecuted later.
The inquiry continues today.