The Bloody Sunday soldier who claims British paratroopers shot 13 unarmed civil rights marchers without justification was yesterday described as a "fantasy merchant" who is cashing in on the tragedy.
Sir Allan Green QC, representing several of the Bloody Sunday paratroopers, said that Soldier 027's 1975 memoirs of the events of January 30th, 1972 in Derry, like his evidence, was "so unreliable that it is worthless".
The eyewitness account of the former radio operative with 1 Para of the bloodshed in Bogside was crucial in convincing the government to hold a second public inquiry into Bloody Sunday. The 1972 Widgery Inquiry largely exonerated the paratroopers.
Sir Allan conducted a line-by-line dissection of 027's 1975 memoir, in which he describes a paratrooper executing a marcher in cold blood, unjustified shootings of people whom he believed were not a threat and efforts by Paras to cover their tracks.
He picked out discrepancies in the account, describing them as lies, embellishments or fantasy.
Sir Allan told 027 at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, sitting in London: "You are a fantasy merchant, aren't you? Selling fantasies in the way that has been examined in your evidence?"
Soldier 027 used the 1975 memoir to refresh his memory for his statement to this inquiryand as source material for a book deal he secured in late 1998 to early 1999.
His account includes "malicious tales" about other soldiers, Sir Allan suggested, triggering strong denials from 027. Counsel representing the Paras who fired the fatal shots argued 027's testimony has been motivated by money.
Soldier 027 was prepared to hold the tribunal to ransom to win a protection deal, including relocation, a salary and anonymity, which secured his co-operation, it was claimed.
Under the package, paid for by the Northern Ireland Office, Soldier 027 has received £20,000 for a deposit on a new house, £1,400 a month in lieu of wages, £6,000 to buy a car and £100 a month for life insurance payments over the past two years.
He is giving evidence behind a screen. The deal ends after his evidence to the inquiry is completed.
Soldier 027 admitted he instructed his solicitor to warn the inquiry he would withdraw his help if his financial demands were not met. Soldier 027 told the inquiry: "For a considerable time I had been living in a situation of stress and anxiety with my family situation and with no end in sight. I was forced into a position where I had to put my family's situation first."
Sir Allan claimed 027's account was inaccurate, conflicts with his other statements and includes a short description of an execution by Soldier H in Glenfada Park which, if it were true, would be "seared" on his memory.
Soldier 027 admitted that despite his graphic account of the Paras opening fire in the Glenfada Park area, where four people were shot dead, it was possible he was not there then.
He said: "My current memories of the events of Glenfada Park or lack of memory does allow for that possibility."
Sir Allan claimed 027's case was not helped by the fact he flushed his contemporaneously-written field notebook down the toilet after details from it became public in 1975.
Soldier 027 said his personal diary notes of Bloody Sunday were stolen by French transvestites who mugged him on the Paris Metro.
Mr Edwin Glasgow QC said: "It is a sad coincidence, is it not, that your only other contemporary diary suffered an almost equally invidious fate in that your literary style apparently attracted some Parisian transvestites who took it off you in the metro."
Soldier 027 replied: "It was a completely unrelated incident many years before. I happened to be mugged and I just related who the muggers were." He said fear had led him to destroy his field notebook.
He said: "I realised, Sir, that it was a contentious document. Ramifications might spring from it and I was agitated, had a concerned state of mind and I did not wish the thing to go out of my hands so I destroyed it." Soldier 027 spent four days in the witness box and was warned he may have to return to the stand. The inquiry resumes today.
- (PA)