An independent film-maker who was involved in the production of a documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of Bloody Sunday said yesterday that he had interviewed a number of soldiers for the film. He had spoken to eight members of the Parachute Regiment who had fired in the Bogside area during the killing of 13 civilians in January 1972.
John Richard Goddard, whose company, Praxis Films Ltd, was commissioned by Channel 4 television to make the documentary as part of the station's Secret History series, said that the eight soldiers he interviewed for the programme were all members of the regiment's snatch platoon deployed on Bloody Sunday.
"Most of them had fired, some had not at all," he told the 233rd day of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry yesterday.
"The soldiers seemed to us to have taken individual and a collective position that they would agree to be interviewed in confidence and for their words to be used in the documentary film, but that they would not be filmed or identified," he told the inquiry's three judges.
Mr Goddard said that as well as talking to the soldiers, several hundred other people, including policemen, clergymen, a doctor and locals, were interviewed.
He said that he had employed a former partrooper, Neil Davies, as a researcher for the film. "Neil Davies had a number of contacts with his old platoon whom we thought might be able to give a new perspective on the events which had never been heard before, or at the very least be able to speak of their direct and personal experiences and views on a matter of ongoing public concern", he said.
He took it as a general principle that he wanted three witnesses to corroborate any single event. "We very quickly were able to tell whether what they were saying seemed truthful. Some of the soldiers were still affected by the events of Bloody Sunday, and this was evident," he added.
Mr Goddard said that he and another member of the production team, Tony Stark, also interviewed Martin McGuinness. They described Mr McGuinness, who was the Provisional IRA's second-in-command in Derry on Bloody Sunday, as "very open" and "precise and careful".
Mr McGuinness told him that both wings of the IRA had given undertakings not to attend the Bloody Sunday march.
"Martin McGuinness was adamant that there were no Provisional IRA weapons there. We also questioned him as to whether he was in charge of the Provisionals, and he denied it," he said.
The witness said that he also spoke to three senior members of the Official IRA. "All three of the Officials that I spoke to confirmed that they were not present with arms on Bloody Sunday. They all said that the OIRA had given an undertaking to this effect and that no OIRA man was present at Bloody Sunday or fired a weapon."
The inquiry continues.