A witness at the Saville Inquiry, who today admitted shielding an IRA gunman from the view of troops, has claimed the British army attempted to kill then nationalist MP, Ms Bernadette Devlin.
Mr Michael Francis McLaughlin said in evidence on day 106 of the public hearings that Ms Devlin (married name McAliskey), avoided being shot when she suddenly leaned forward to point as bullets were fired.
Ms Devlin, a civil rights campaigner and MP for Mid-Ulster in 1972, was a speaker at the anti-internment demonstration that preceded the Bloody Sunday killings.
Mr McLaughlin also told the inquiry into the killings on Bloody Sunday that he was glad to see paramilitaries arriving, and that he also warned them that soldiers were firing from the walls overlooking them.
He said a group of IRA gunmen arrived later that afternoon, pulling up in a car beside the Bogside Inn - south of the main location of the killings - and getting out with their weapons.
His written statement to the inquiry said: "I knew these men were IRA men and I was glad to see that we had finally got some protection. However I did not see them shoot."
Examined by barrister Ms Cathryn McGahey, counsel for the inquiry, he described one of the unit, a man aged about 18, carrying a Winchester-type rifle by his side.
He added: "I remember I was that angry I told him to watch the Derry Walls, that they were shooting from the Derry Walls.
"I shielded him ... so that the Army might not pick up the weapon by his side and he went into one of the houses, in through the alley."
Mr McLaughlin, who was 22 years old on Bloody Sunday, said he followed the gunman across Westland Street, believing he was going to take up a firing position and "shoot across the Bog" and then left him, fearing he would be shot himself.
Questioned by Mr Gerald Elias QC, acting for some of the soldiers, he said: "I realised since that if he had shot a soldier, if I had known anything about it, I would not have been able to live with myself for helping him.
"It was a reckless move on my part. I have often thought that, though I don't believe I helped kill anyone that day."
PA