A man who was wounded on Bloody Sunday yesterday came face to face with a paratrooper who may have shot him.
Mr Damien Donaghy was a 15-year-old schoolboy when he was shot in the leg while picking up rubber bullets as souvenirs on January 30th, 1972, the day of the civil rights march through Derry.
Mr Donaghy sat just yards away, among bereaved relatives, as a corporal with the machinegun platoon of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment became the first paratrooper to tell the Bloody Sunday inquiry, sitting in London, that he shot a nail-bomber that day.
The paratrooper, identified only as Soldier A, recalled peering through his rifle sights and firing twice at a man who was striking a match against a wall to light a nail-bomb. The second shot struck the target before he was able to attack the security forces, according to Soldier A, who insisted he had not fabricated his account to justify the shooting.
He accepted it was "possible" that if he fired a shot which missed the alleged nail-bomber then this may have struck Mr Donaghy.
Soldier A was on the first floor of a derelict building in William Street overlooking the Bogside when the "yob element" at the tail end of the march began stoning the building. Soldier A claims he spotted a nail-bomber and opened fire.
This was about 15 minutes before paratroopers moved through the barriers to arrest rioters, killing 13 men and injuring 13 other people.
"I am glad that it has happened after 31 years. I just want to hear the truth," Mr Donaghy said, outside the hearing. "I am the person that he is likely to have shot. For 31 years he and the fellow members of his platoon have branded me as a nail-bomber. I am not a nail-bomber. Over 70 witnesses including civilians, priests and journalists have given evidence to the inquiry that there were no nail-bombs thrown or explosions caused in William Street on Bloody Sunday."
Soldier A opened fire on the edge of the Bogside where Mr Donaghy and John Johnston were shot. He had cocked his rifle earlier after hearing what he believed were two bombs whiz past the window. He said there was no chance that he had shot someone by accident, or that he had been mistaken about seeing a nail-bomber or that he fired because he was panicking.
Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel for the inquiry, told the hearing there was a "mass of evidence" that Mr Johnston, "a 59-year-old man . . . who was taking no part in any riotous behaviour" was shot by either Soldier A or Private B.
Mr Johnston, who is widely considered the 14th victim of Bloody Sunday, received several injuries and died five months later of a brain tumour.
Denying that he had shot carelessly, Soldier A told the inquiry: "In fact, I was very aware of the consequences of firing my weapon. I had been in Northern Ireland 20 or 22 months, and this was the first time that I had fired my rifle, apart from on the range.
Soldier A said: "I can see no reason why someone was striking a match and bringing it towards another object unless it was a nail-bomb." He denied shooting as an act of bravado to stop colleagues from looking down on him as a "crap hat" or an "Aunt Sally", namely someone who accepted abuse and stoning.
Mr Arthur Harvey QC, representing many of the bereaved and injured including Mr Donaghy and Mr Johnston, claimed that inconsistencies in Soldier A's statements suggest his account was "tailored" by himself or jointly with Private B to justify the shooting.
Soldier A later accepted there were similarities between his and Private B's statement but denied this was anything sinister. - (PA)