"He told me he was 17 and this was his first march . . . I started playing `big daddy', I told him he would be fine if he stuck by me."
Thus a witness to the death of Michael Kelly at the barricade in Rossville Street on Bloody Sunday describes vividly for the first time how he took the young man under his wing only minutes before the fatal shooting.
The statement of Danny Craig to the Saville tribunal's solicitors was read to the inquiry yesterday by Mr Christopher Clarke QC. He said Mr Craig had not given evidence to the Widgery inquiry in 1972.
Michael Kelly was the seventh child in a family of 13 and was training to be an electrical engineer. Mr Craig, in his statement, relates how he got talking to him at the rubble barricade and the youth introduced himself.
"I said I knew his brother John because I worked with him. He told me he was 17 and this was his first march. Because I was 25 at the time I started playing `big daddy'. I told him to run when I ran, to throw stones when I threw stones and to do everything I did and he would be all right. This is what he then did.
". . . After a lull of a few minutes all of a sudden the big guys came in. I can only describe it like that because suddenly the little soldiers who had been at Barrier 14 and who I was used to seeing seemed to disappear.
"The bigger soldiers seemed completely different and much more fearsome than the others . . . They came down into Rossville Street . . . One of the big guys got down on his knee . . . I think he was on the footpath. I would say he went down on his right knee and he pulled his gun up and fired at us.
"I thought it would be a rubber bullet and I told Michael to watch it. The soldier fired and the noise was not like the noise of a rubber bullet. It left a ringing in my ears because it was live fire.
"Most of the lads around me were younger than me and one of them fell down straightaway. Then another one was shot and fell face down on the barricade, screaming and clutching his leg. I was thinking, `What is the matter with you?' because I could not believe they had been shot. The big guys were still walking along towards us and the Saracens were still coming in behind them.
"I said to Michael Kelly `Get down' and I bent down to pick up a stone, and he did the same because he was doing everything that I did, but as he stood up he fell back and said `Danny, I am shot'. I will never forget him falling back and saying my name like that.
"I looked at him and he seemed to have nothing but a pinhole in his gut. By this time the regular army seemed to have pulled out and the big guys were coming forward towards us. The big guys had their rifles down by their waists. They had spread out and were shooting all over.
"Michael's face had changed colour and his eyes had rolled back in his head. He was dying right in front of me. I shouted to Michael to get up. I was crying, confused and scared. My knees were locked together and my stomach was turning. I had never seen a man die before. I was terrified and I ran away and left him . . . two braver men than me ran out and pulled Michael Kelly on to the footpath . . . when they turned (him) over his back was blown out and his guts had come out."