BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY/Day 295: A soldier who was based on the periphery of the Bogside area of Derry on Bloody Sunday 31 years ago, said yesterday he was convinced that the sight of the then Father Edward Daly praying over the body of one of the Bloody Sunday victims was "an elaborate charade".
The soldier, who was a corporal in the Royal Green Jackets during the Bogside killings of 13 unarmed civilians, also told the Saville Inquiry that he believed Father Daly's actions in praying over the body of teenager Jackie Duddy was part of a set-up.
The witness, known to the Inquiry as Soldier 131, said he thought the dying teenager's body "looked like a dummy" as it was carried by a group of civilians from the Bogside towards his position behind a security-force barricade at the junction of Waterloo Street and High Street.
He told the inquiry that after he had heard shots, which sounded like a "hit-and-run gunfight", coming from the Bogside after members of the Parachute Regiment had been deployed into the area, he saw a couple of teenage boys carrying what he believed was a tailor's dummy.
"I thought it was a tailor's dummy because it was rigid and immobile.
"My first thought was that they had broken into a shop and stolen it, although I also recall thinking that they might have pulled it out of an old bonfire because it seemed to be a bit charred or blackened in places.
"The young boys then laid the dummy down on Waterloo Street, turned towards the soldiers behind my barrier and started shouting and swearing at us.
"At that point a priest emerged from High Street. He put something around his neck, probably a stole, and went over to where what I thought was the dummy had been put on the ground," he said.
"The priest was wearing dark clothing, probably a cassock, and was wearing the normal cross-shaped Catholic priest's hat. I was not convinced that he was a real priest because he seemed to be praying over what I thought was a tailor's dummy.
"Even now, I cannot be certain in my own mind that it was not a tailor's dummy I saw. My reaction was that something was not quite right, that we were being set up in some way."
Asked by Mr Arthur Harvey QC, who represents the families of most of the Bloody Sunday victims, if he thought he was watching "an elaborate charade", the witness replied "Yes".
Asked if he still believed the body of Jackie Duddy was a dummy, the witness said: "Not now".
The inquiry continues today.