THE BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY/Day 301: A paratrooper who fired a minimum of seven shots towards a complex of flats in Derry's Bogside on Bloody Sunday was described yesterday as "a stupid plonker" by another soldier who witnessed the incident.
The witness, known as Inquiry 351, told the Saville Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings of 13 unarmed civilians in January 1972 he could not see any reason why the paratrooper opened fire towards the Rossville Street flats complex, shortly after members of the Parachute Regiment had been deployed into the area.
"The amount of rounds he was firing I found very unusual," he told the inquiry's three judges.
The witness, who was a rifleman in the Second Battalion of the Royal Green Jackets, said he saw the shooting incident shortly after he had followed paratroopers into the Bogside.
"At some stage I saw a para firing in the direction of the Rossville Flats like a stupid plonker," he said.
"The para was standing, aiming shots from his shoulder in the direction of the Rossville Flats. I will never forget it.
"I saw him fire four, five or six shots, it could have been more and it could have been less, but they were fired in quick succession in the direction of the Rossville Flats," he added.
"After that, he changed his magazine and fired at least one further shot. I assumed that he had emptied his magazine.
"I did not see where the shots ended up or what they hit. I cannot remember seeing other paras or civilians around.
"I do recall turning round and saying to another soldier 'what a plonker'," the rifleman told the inquiry.
Meanwhile, a soldier in the British army's intelligence unit at the time of Bloody Sunday told the judges that none of the 13 people killed, nor none of the 13 people injured on Bloody Sunday, was known to the army's intelligence officers.
"On the day of what was called Bloody Sunday, we did not know the names of any of the people who were killed or injured," he said.
"If there were people who were killed or injured that we were aware of, that we knew of, we would have been able to do a correlation. We would have run our normal procedures to see if any of those people who were involved were known to us and for what reason," he added.
The inquiry continues.