Proposals to introduce intelligence material about witnesses at the Bloody Sunday inquiry are "dangerous and fundamentally suspect", it was claimed today.
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Barrister Mr Dennis Boyd told the tribunal in Derry it would have to assume MI5, RUC and British army allegations about the individuals were true if it used them at its hearings to evaluate their credibility in the witness box.
"In my respectful submission, given the questionable legitimacy of material of this nature, that would be wholly wrong," said Mr Boyd, representing witness Mr Seán Collins.
Mr Collins, who was 10 on Bloody Sunday, brought his own legal team into the inquiry after a row erupted over the attempt by lawyers representing soldiers to introduce intelligence material on civilian witnesses.
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Legal submissions on his behalf came on a second day of special hearings into the subject.
Legal representatives of the troops who opened fire on Bloody Sunday claim the material is essential if the full truth about events that day is to be uncovered.
They say it will help establish credibility of those who have come forward and uncover information about the IRA and what it did on Bloody Sunday.
Yesterday, counsel to the inquiry Mr Christopher Clarke QC disclosed that MI5 and the British Ministry of Defence have material on file about a "significant" number of people who have provided evidence to the tribunal.
Some was "but a passing reference" but other material "reflected participation in or association with paramilitary groups" or crime, he said.
PA