A former British Army Paratrooper who has claimed he opened fire in Derry's Bogside on Bloody Sunday was named today by the judges re-investigating the shootings.
The soldier, until now only identified as Inq 23, is called Mr David Longstaff, the tribunal of three judges announced in a written ruling. But the anonymity granted to a soldier known as 027, who was named accidentally at a preliminary hearing of the inquiry, must be maintained, the tribunal ruled.
A former member of the anti-tank platoon of 1 Para, 027 has claimed colleagues used illegal dumdum bullets on Bloody Sunday and deliberately shot unarmed fleeing people, some lying wounded on the ground.
He has been granted a witness protection package to testify at the multi-million pound inquiry which has been in progress for the past three years.
All soldiers bar the Army top brass who feature in the Saville inquiry have been granted anonymity, but the inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, have made exceptions of soldiers whose names were deemed to be already in the public domain.
In its ruling, the tribunal said Mr Longstaff featured in a 1995 UTV documentary Tour of Duty in which he acknowledged that he was a member of the Parachute Regiment and that he fired in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday.
The ruling stated: "He was not given a code at the Widgery Inquiry as he neither testified nor gave a statement either to that inquiry nor the Royal Military Police.
"He accepts his name is in the public domain, as does his solicitor.
"The Tribunal has therefore named Inq 23 as David Longstaff."
But 027 was deemed to be a "borderline case" by the judges.
He was publicly named by Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, acting for more than 400 of the soldiers, at a preliminary hearing of the inquiry in April 1999 - and the name has since been placed on the Inquiry web site. The ruling stated: "Nothing was said at the hearing that day which directly linked the name of the soldier with any coded number.
"A newspaper report of the hearing and a TV broadcast both repeated the name, but while the TV report named the soldier, no link was made to any coded number. The newspaper article did make the connection," the report stated.
PA