THE BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY/Day 341: At least two civilian gunmen were in Derry on Bloody Sunday, it was claimed yesterday.
A lance corporal in the Parachute Regiment told the Saville inquiry in London he saw one man carrying a pistol while another was armed with a rifle on the day 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead by soldiers. A 14th man died later.
Soldier INQ 1799, who was granted anonymity, also said he heard automatic gunfire on January 30th, 1972, which may have come from a Thompson sub-machine gun favoured by the IRA. He described seeing two gunmen at separate points after he went through a crowd control barrier at William Street.
Mr Arthur Harvey QC, counsel for many of the families, described the soldier as a "suggestible person" and asked how he could have seen gunmen in areas where there were many other soldiers.
However, Soldier INQ 1799 replied: "I don't regard myself as being so (suggestible)."
The soldier said he was "absolutely certain" he saw the two gunmen he described, the first of which was in the Chamberlain Street area.
"The gunman was pointing the pistol in my general direction. I could see the ball shape of his clasped hands around the automatic pistol. When I saw the gunman I immediately stopped thinking about making arrests. My option then was to either engage him or take cover."
He said the gunman was surrounded by other civilians so it was unsafe for him to open fire, so he dived into the doorway of a house to take cover.
He said that as he took cover, he heard the first gunfire he heard on Bloody Sunday. "The gunfire I heard was two distinct bursts of automatic fire from a Thompson sub-machine gun.
"I was very familiar with the weapon as it has a very distinct slow, 'boom, boom' noise. The first burst of fire I heard was probably seven to 12 rounds and the second three to five rounds."
Soldier 1799 said he was unaware of where the shooting was coming from but it sounded as though it was close enough to be potentially threatening to him.
He said he then went back to an army vehicle to deposit his rubber bullet gun, before making his way to an area of waste ground near Rossville flats.
He said he then saw a gunman holding a M1 carbine rifle. "I could see that the gunman was lying in the prone position."
Meanwhile, the inquiry also saw footage of a riot at Magilligan beach in Derry, filmed by Mr William McKinney on January 22nd, 1972, eight days before he was shot dead on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier INQ 573, a captain in the Royal Green Jackets, told the inquiry he saw an "awful lot of unnecessary violence by the paras, including baton-swinging" that day.
"They were striking a middle-aged man and a woman whose age I could not determine as they lay on the ground," he said.
"The paras were striking them with their batons. I physically stopped the paras from striking the civilians any further. I was extremely angry at what I saw these paras doing."
Soldier INQ 573 said he saw other paratroopers "misbehaving in a similar way" and had words with them.
There was no secret army plan to seize control of the nationalist Bogside area on Bloody Sunday, the officer in command of paratroopers on that day said yesterday.
Mr Clarke asked the colonel: "Was it ever envisaged on or before January 30th, 1972 that the army would, in any shape or form, take over the Bogside?"
Col Wilford replied: "Not at all."