A spokesman for the Bloody Sunday Tribunal admitted yesterday that the tribunal's decision last autumn to release a document containing the names of nine British soldiers associated with the events of Bloody Sunday, was a mistake.
The document, known as ED-49, was released to solicitors involved in the inquiry into the January 1972 killings, in the mistaken belief that it previously had been obtainable from public sources.
A statement from the Lord Chancellor's department said the document was disclosed because the original 1972 Widgery Inquiry into the killing of 14 unarmed civilians in Derry's Bogside described it as an exhibited document. The Tory party's Northern spokesman, Mr Andrew Mackay, said the inquiry's latest error did not bode well for a proper, independent review of the events of Bloody Sunday. "The Saville Inquiry have now admitted to misleading those of us who criticised it for releasing the names of former members of the Parachute Regiment who might be called as witnesses."