A British paratrooper who fired 12 shots on Bloody Sunday today said events on the day were a tragedy.
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Soldier S said he regretted all the deaths, including that of a man he said he identified as a gunman.
The retired soldier told the Saville Inquiry he killed a lot of people while serving in the British army, but denied he had no reservations about shooting civilians on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier S also apologised for signing statements to military police in 1972, which he admitted were "full of inaccuracies".
He denied lying to the Saville Inquiry and said he was not the soldier who telephoned the families of two of the men killed on Bloody Sunday in tears to apologise several years ago.
The retired soldier said he was sorry about all the deaths on Bloody Sunday but he stood by his own actions on the day 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead by British soldiers. A 14th man died later.
"I regret the whole incident," he said.
"Even the man that I identified as a gunman, who was obviously posing a threat to us in the alleyway, if I did hit him and kill him, it is still a tragedy, is it not?
"It is still, somebody grieved him. Although I had a duty to do that, it is still a tragedy to his family, is it not?
"This is a tragedy, it is a tragedy for everybody, I realise that and I am sorry that innocent people got killed on that day, I am very, very sorry for that, but for my action on the day, my particular action, I believe I was justified in what I did."
Soldier S stood by his original claims that he believed he wounded a civilian gunman or gunmen on Bloody Sunday.
He said he was fired at by a gunman from an alleyway at the Rossville flats before returning four sets of three rounds.
He said that he believed he hit a gunman with two of the volleys, but he was not sure whether he hit one gunman or two separate men as his target was at times obscured by the crowd.
The retired soldier, who was 18-years-old at the time, said he could remember very little about the events of January 30th, 1972, and relied on his evidence to the Widgery Inquiry held shortly after the shootings.
He said he had joined the special forces shortly after Bloody Sunday and fought in a separatist war in which ambushes and firefights were a daily occurrence.
Soldier S said he fired thousands of rounds shots before quitting the British army after being seriously injured in the Middle East in 1974.
Mr Barry MacDonald QC, counsel for many of the families, asked the soldier: "Have you in fact killed lots of people?"
Soldier S: "Yes."
Mr MacDonald: "In 1972 and specifically on January 30th, 1972, you had no compunction about shooting and killing civilians?"
Soldier S: "That is not true."
Mr MacDonald: "I suggest that you fired 12 shots at least on this day in circumstances which are so indefensible that you had to invent a ridiculous story about how you discharged your 12 rounds."
Soldier S: "No."
Mr MacDonald: "And you have told lies about it then and you have told lies about it since, you told lies about it to Eversheds (Inquiry solicitors) and you have told lies about it to this tribunal?"
Soldier S: "No."
Soldier S admitted he did not distinguish between civil rights marchers and rioters on Bloody Sunday.
Mr MacDonald asked: "Did you make any distinction between the rioters and the marchers?"
Soldier S: "No, I probably did not, to be honest about it."
PA