A former Official IRA gunman yesterday denied he was responsible for the deaths of three of the nine British soldiers who were murdered by republican paramilitaries in the six-month period up to Bloody Sunday.
Known as OIRA 1, he described the suggestion, contained in a journalist's statement to the Bloody Sunday inquiry, as "nonsense". The witness, who admitted firing a single shot from the Bogside area of Derry at a British soldier on a nearby roof, said he only fired at his target after the first two of the 26 civilians shot by paratroopers on January 30th, 1972, had already been wounded.
Thirteen of those shot by paratroopers, who had been deployed into the Bogside during a civil rights march, died. OIRA 1 yesterday told the 396th day of the inquiry into the shootings that he had never spoken to the journalist, Mr Gerard Kemp, who on Bloody Sunday worked for the Sunday Telegraph.
In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Kemp claimed that he had interviewed an Official IRA gunman who claimed he had fired a shot in circumstances similar to the witness. That gunman, he wrote in his article, was "in his early 20s and said he had shot and killed three British soldiers since last August, the army confirming their deaths".
Of the nine British soldiers killed in Derry between August 1971 and Bloody Sunday, seven were shot dead and two others died in a bomb attack. One of them was killed by an IRA sniper who reportedly used a .303 rifle.
The witness, who fired a .303 rifle on Bloody Sunday, said in his statement that Mr Kemp claimed to have interviewed an Official IRA gunman after the Bloody Sunday killings.
"I have no memory of an interview with Gerard Kemp. I have no comment on the killing of three British soldiers in the period since August 1971," he told the inquiry's three judges.
The inquiry's chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate, told the witness's barrister, Mr Kevin O'Donovan QC, that the reference to the deaths of the three British soldiers "could be said to be evidence relevant to our investigation for what occurred on that day. The suggestion is that your client is a sniper and, in support of that suggestion, had been sniping away successfully at British soldiers in the previous months".
Meanwhile counsel to the inquiry, Ms Kathryn McGahey, said she wanted to ask the witness "one final time, did you fire that shot before hearing any shots at all from the army". The witness said he had not.
The inquiry resumes today.