The Bloody Sunday Inquiry heard yesterday that a 38-yearold widow, a mother of 14, was the first civilian shot after members of the lst Battalion of the Parachute Regiment were sent into Derry's Bogside on January 30th, 1972. The inquiry was also told one of two men who helped Mrs Peggy Deery to safety, Mr Michael Kelly, was shot dead minutes later and the second, Mr Patrick McDaid, survived after he was shot in the back.
Mrs Deery, the only woman shot on Bloody Sunday, was wounded as she ran from soldiers in the car-park of the Rossville Flats complex. In statements to the RUC and to the Sunday Times, Mrs Deery, who died 12 years ago, said she was hit in the left thigh. In her statement she said: "I saw a soldier in front of me and he appeared to be taking aim at me and then I felt a blow to my left thigh. I called to a man to help me, which he did, and he took me to a house in Chamberlain Street."
However, Mr Christopher Clarke QC, for the tribunal, said none of the evidence from the soldiers referred to anyone firing at or hitting a woman answering Mrs Deery's description.
In an interview with the Sunday Times shortly after Bloody Sunday, Mrs Deery said that Mr Michael Kelly (17), was one of the two men who carried her into a house in Chamberlain Street. "On the assumption that this is the same Michael Kelly who is being talked about, that may give some support to the proposition that Mrs Deery was the first person to be wounded,' said Mr Clarke.
Mr Michael Bradley, one of the five people shot in the Rossville car-park, told the inquiry he didn't know why he stated in subsequent media interviews that he was throwing stones at soldiers when he was shot.
Mr Bradley, who was wounded in both forearms and chest, said he saw two soldiers beside a British army Saracen aiming their rifles in his direction just after Jackie Duddy, the day's first fatality, was shot close to him. "The next thing I remember is feeling a heavy thud on my right upper arm. I threw my left arm over my right arm. My first reaction was that I had been hit by a rubber bullet and I remember saying `I'm hit, I'm hit'.
"A young man close to me said I had not been, but that I had been shot. I then saw the blood. It was streaming down my arm. I turned and staggered over to the low wall behind me in front of Block 2," he said. "I definitely did not have anything in my hands when I was shot. The soldiers took me at my word when I shouted at them to shoot me. I was very close to the soldier leaning over the mudguard, who had to see I was not armed. I do not know who shot me, I just always remember seeing this soldier," said Mr Bradley. Mr Clarke said: "no soldier gives evidence of shooting someone in the position of Michael Bradley, that is close to the body of Jack Duddy".
Mr Patrick McDaid said he was wounded as he ran from below a wall bordering the car-park. "I decided I was not going to stay there because it would have been very easy for us to have been cut off by the army," he said in his statement to the tribunal.
"I got down on my hands and knees to creep or crawl across the car park. However, I changed my mind as I thought a running target would be more difficult to hit; therefore, I stood up again and got ready to run," he said. Mr McDaid said he hesitated slightly because a photographer who ran past him dropped his camera. "When I got over the wall, a man said to me `You are shot in the back'. I said: `No, they missed me'. The man put his hand on my back and showed me the blood on his hands. I panicked," said Mr McDaid.
Mr Clarke said a medical report stated Mr McDaid had received a glancing wound while he was ducking down. He said the presence of particles of carbon on the wound indicated Mr McDaid had been hit by "a close-range discharge".
Mr Clarke then referred to the killing of Mr Patrick Doherty, photographed seconds before he was shot by French photographer Gilles Peres.
In his statement, Mr Peres said he saw three men trying to get out of the car-park via an alley between blocks two and three of the complex. "When I saw them disappear from view, I thought if they had got through I should follow them," said Mr Peres. "Less than one minute later, I ran in a crouched position. When I got there I saw Patrick Doherty lying on the ground with his feet towards me. He was clearly badly wounded, if not dead. There was a man behind Doherty crawling on his belly towards him shouting something, with an expression of shock on his face," said Mr Peres.
However, Mr Clarke said another witness said Mr Doherty had been shot twice, once inside in the car-park and then after exiting the car-park. The witness, Mr Bernard Gilmore, whose brother, Hugh, was also shot dead on Bloody Sunday, told the inquiry he saw Mr Doherty from his flat in the complex. "I saw Paddy Doherty being hit as he was crawling along under the front of the wall. The bullet lifted him into the air. He had not died, however, the first time he was shot.
He managed to crawl through the gap between Blocks 2 and 3 towards the front of the flats. He had nothing in his hands, no weapons," said Mr Gilmore. Mr Clarke told the inquiry, however, Mr Doherty had been shot just once. "The report of the pathologist shows one entry wound and one exit wound," he said. Mr Clarke said the entry wound was in the right buttock and the exit wound in the left chest. "The track of the bullet was from back to front, and 33 degrees and upwards on 45 degrees," he said. The inquiry continues.