A leading expert on counter- insurgency operations is due to be the first witness to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry when it sits in London for the first time today.
Sir Frank Kitson, who was commander of the 39th Brigade in Belfast at the time of Bloody Sunday in January 1972, is expected to be the first witness when the inquiry starts in the Central Hall Westminster this morning. At the time of Bloody Sunday, Sir Frank's brigade reserves were the lst Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, the regiment used in the Bogside area of Derry during the killings of 13 civilians and woundings of 13 others.
Other witnesses scheduled to give evidence in London this week include Mr Colin Overbury, who at the time of Bloody Sunday was a lieutenant colonel and head of the British army's legal team at the original Widgery Inquiry, Mr William Smith, who was secretary to the Widgery Inquiry, and Mr Hugh Mooney, who was then a Belfast-based senior official in the British government's information research department.
In London the inquiry is expected to hear from over 250 British soldiers who were on duty in Derry on Bloody Sunday. During its sessions in Derry's Guildhall, which started in March 2000, the inquiry's three judges heard evidence from 568 witnesses, most of them civilians.
The move to London from Derry to hear the soldiers' evidence followed a ruling from the Court of Appeal that the military witnesses had reasonable fears for their safety if they had to give their evidence in Derry. The cost of moving the inquiry is £15 million.