The Bloody Sunday Inquiry/Day 412: A witness yesterday accused solicitors involved in the Bloody Sunday Inquiry of perverting the course of justice by withholding information about the only member of the Official IRA who was wounded in Derry in the aftermath of the Bloody Sunday killings.
He also said that one of the solicitors "has most probably earned millions from this inquiry" and other solicitors had stopped the inquiry from gaining important information about the killings by paratroopers of 13 unarmed civilians in the Bogside on January 30th, 1972. Mr Paul Mahon, who researched Bloody Sunday for the Derry legal firm of Brendan Kearney, Kelly and Company before his involvement was terminated by the firm, made the allegations when being cross-examined by barrister Lord Gifford, who represents the family of victim Jim Wray.
Without any interruption from the inquiry's three judges, Mr Mahon made the allegations while referring to Michael Doherty, a member of the Official IRA who was wounded in a gunfight with British soldiers soon after the 13 civilians had been killed and 13 others wounded by paratroopers. Mr Doherty, who died last year, was being sought by the inquiry's legal team but they failed to locate him even though he manned a stall in William Street, 274 metres from the Guildhall where the inquiry has been sitting.
Mr Mahon asked how many of the solicitors in the inquiry had known of Mr Doherty's whereabouts before he died. Asked by Lord Gifford if he had given information about the Official IRA gunman's location to the inquiry, he replied, amid laughter from the public gallery, that "I do not think they asked me".
The inquiry continues today.