A journalist today described falling to his knees as a soldier deliberately fired a shot at him on Bloody Sunday.
Mr Simon Winchester claimed chunks of masonry were blasted out of the wall above him on the fateful day 29 years ago when 13 men were shot dead in Derry.
Then a reporter with the Guardian, Mr Winchester also told the Saville Inquiry how in retrospect he was "a useful mouthpiece" for the British army in the days he covered Northern Ireland.
And he recalled fleeing a meeting with IRA leaders - including Sinn Féin's Mr Martin Meehan - in Dundalk in Co Louth a month before Bloody Sunday because he was accused of being an army spy by the then Provisional "Chief of Staff" Mr Seán MacStiofáin, who was buried today.
Giving evidence in the Guildhall in Derry Mr Winchester (56) said he was expecting a "relatively spirited confrontation" on the civil rights march that turned into Bloody Sunday.
He claimed to have been briefed two or three nights before the demonstration by either Brig Frank Kitson or British army press officer Mr Colin Wallace who confirmed 1 Para was to be deployed that day.
Mr Winchester said he first escaped the gunfire as paratroopers came into the Bogside in the wake of the march and opened fire.
As he continued to run away with the crowd he heard what sounded like a machine-gun returning the British army's fire but added: "It's difficult to be precise. I was well aware, even at the time, that it might have been a helicopter."
He said the second shooting happened when he was further south at the foot of the city walls on the fringe of the Bogside with another man, both of them clearly unarmed.
Mr Winchester said a soldier took aim deliberately and went down on one knee, adding: "I saw two rapid jerks and certainly one puff of smoke. I did not hear the bullet.
"The next thing I heard was something behind me over my left shoulder. It was sort of smack and a small piece or a little shower of stones pebbled down on the road beside me . . ."
PA