The Widgery Inquiry in 1972 inexplicably failed to notice and follow up an apparently very significant admission made by a paratrooper during cross-examination, it emerged yesterday.
The admission was made by a soldier, now deceased, who was identified as Private G, and whose rifle is known through forensic analysis to have fired the bullet that killed 17-year-old Gerald Donaghey on Bloody Sunday.
There has been copious civilian testimony that Donaghey and Gerard McKinney were shot in Abbey Park, west of Glenfada Park where several others died and were wounded, but no soldiers admitted firing shots in that area.
Counsel to the Saville Inquiry, Mr Christopher Clarke QC, pointed out yesterday, however, that Private G had been asked specifically about this at the Widgery Inquiry. In cross-examination, counsel for the Ministry of Defence, Mr E.B. Gibbens QC, asked Private G: "Before you got the recall, did you fire through that alleyway in the direction of Abbey Park . . . ?" Private G replied: "Yes, sir".
Mr Clarke noted that the Widgery Tribunal's counsel, Mr John Stocker QC, in his closing address to Widgery, stated: "According to the military witnesses, no soldier fired a shot in the area between Glenfada and Abbey Park, or through the alleyway through Glenfada into Abbey Park."
The significance of Private G's answer appeared to have escaped the notice of Mr Stocker, he said. It also appeared to have escaped the notice of Lord Widgery and of counsel for the relatives.
"In any event, no one asked him (Private G) what he meant . . . why he shot through the alleyway, how many times, or with what result", Mr Clarke said. He pointed out that if Private G had indeed meant to say that he shot towards Abbey Park, this shot or shots would "put the numbers out" in regard to his firing. Private G had given evidence that he had fired just six shots, and had given an account of them which did not include any shots in the direction of Abbey Park.
Counsel said: "How one unravels this mystery is unclear." There were a number of possibilities, including that the transcript of the remarks could have been erroneous or wrongly interpreted. But he could, in fact, have meant to say "yes", and no one spotted the significance either at the time or thereafter.
Mr Clarke pointed out a number of other discrepancies between statements made by individual soldiers to the military police immediately after the shootings, and later statements made to the Widgery Inquiry. He said that a soldier identified only as Gunner 030, who was observing from the city walls of Derry, had told the military police of seeing a soldier fire three rounds at a gunman in Glenfada Park.
But in a statement to the present tribunal, this soldier says he has no memory of such an incident. "I can only assume that the account which I gave . . . to the Royal Military Police was misinterpreted by them at the time."