A former British Army lawyer yesterday denied that pressure was put on Bloody Sunday soldiers to change their evidence about the killings.
Lieut Col Colin Overbury told the Saville inquiry in London there was no cover-up to help the paratroopers who shot dead 13 unarmed men on a civil rights march in Derry in January 1972.
"If such an allegation is made, it is untrue," he said. "I would remember if any attempt had been made to put such pressure on any of the soldiers at any of the interviews at which I was present. I do not remember this. If I had witnessed such pressure, I would have put a stop to it and I would have made a report to my director. The purpose of interviewing the soldiers was to find out the truth."
Lieut Col Overbury was a key member of the British army's legal team at the Widgery inquiry and later became a senior legal officer at the European Commission. On behalf of the Ministry of Defence he informed soldiers that they were obliged to make statements and give evidence to the 1972 Widgery tribunal which investigated the shootings.
He admitted there were discrepancies between the accounts of the soldiers and between the original statements from some paratroopers and those they gave later when being interviewed in preparation for Widgery. These inconsistencies were not surprising because the soldiers had been involved in "intense activity" and were under stress, he told the inquiry.
One paratrooper claimed the Treasury solicitor's staff "fabricated" the statement in his name to the Widgery inquiry. In a vehement denial of such activity, Lieut Col Overbury said relations between the army and the Treasury solicitor's staff would not support any suggestion that there was any incentive on their part to suborn military witnesses to commit perjury.
Mr Barry MacDonald QC, counsel for many of the bereaved families, suggested the relationship between the army and the solicitors had been "cosy enough to allow irregularities to occur" that would undermine the credibility of the statements.
Lieut Col Overbury denied this. In an unrecorded statement a paratrooper, known as Soldier V, said he had shot a man whom he had seen throwing a bottle with a fuse dangling from it. Soldier V originally said he opened fire after the bottle or petrol bomb was thrown, the tribunal was told.
Lord Saville, the inquiry chair, said this statement could appear to be "a very damaging admission". He noted that by the time Soldier V gave his evidence to Widgery his final statement "virtually completely removes that damaging submission".
Lord Gifford QC, for the family of victim Mr Jim Wray, suggested Lieut Col Overbury "prompted" the soldiers to change their evidence after interviewing them in preparation for Widgery. He described three possible instances of illegal shootings under the army's "yellow card rules", or conditions for opening fire.
Lord Gifford told Lieut Col Overbury: "There seems to be a common thread between these three statements. Each of them give evidence of an illegal shooting and each of them in your hand modify their accounts quite substantially."
Lieut Col Overbury conceded that some soldiers had changed their statements after interviews by the army's legal team, but Lord Saville added: "He does not accept that he suggested to these soldiers that they add further detail than they did before."