The body of a 17-year-old youth was photographed by the police with nail-bombs sticking out of his pockets, but several civilians who searched him soon after he was shot had found nothing, the inquiry heard yesterday.
Mr Raymond Rogan said he had clear memories of Gerald Donaghey being searched for identification when he was carried into Mr Rogan's house shortly after he was wounded.
Mr Rogan, who was chairman of a tenants association in Glenfada Park/Abbey Park, said he was very angry when in 1972, the Widgery tribunal in effect rejected his evidence. He said yesterday: "Lord Widgery failed to appreciate that no one in their right mind would deliberately take a person with bombs into their house with their children there."
He said the truth of what he had testified to at the Widgery inquiry was obvious. "If Gerald Donaghey had had bombs on him, I would not have taken him in. If I had at any stage become aware of the nail-bombs when he was in the house, I would have got him taken out. It's one thing being helpful trying to save someone's life; it is another thing to put other people's lives at risk, especially family."
He described in evidence how he had agreed to drive the gravely wounded youth to Altnagelvin Hospital. He would not have done that if he had known of the presence of nail-bombs. "The point is that there were definitely no bombs in any of Gerald Donaghey's pockets at any time when he was with me or in my house."
He had patted the youth's pockets when he was carried into the house; his wife and a doctor had both searched the pockets to try to establish who the youth was.
He described setting out for the hospital with the youth in his car and being stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint on Barrack Street. The soldiers had forcibly removed him from the car and held him at gunpoint against a wall, although he had explained the urgency of getting the wounded boy to a hospital.
When he looked around, his car had gone and he learned later it was taken to an army camp at the Craigavon Bridge.
With another man, Leo Young, who had been assisting Gerald Donaghey in the car, he was taken to the Derry RUC headquarters and locked in a cell until 7.30 p.m., when he was released.
Before that he was told nail-bombs had been found on the injured youth. He did not believe it. He would not have missed seeing the nail-bombs either while carrying him into the house or when he was lying in the living room or when he patted his pockets.
The inquiry continues today.