A man wounded on Bloody Sunday said he was afraid for years to speak publicly about how he saw a soldier shoot another injured civilian in the back at point blank range.
Mr Joe Mahon spoke with great difficulty about the incident that he witnessed as he lay helpless on the pavement in the Bogside.
He said he was aged 16 when shot by the paratroopers and he has not previously made a formal statement about it. He now wanted to give evidence - "I want to speak about the murder of Jim Wray," he said. Mr Mahon said he ran along the side of the courtyard of Glenfada Park North when a group of paratroopers entered it, one of them firing shots from the hip in a "fan" pattern. He felt something hit him and he fell and lay sprawled on his stomach, thinking at first he had been hit by a rubber bullet. He could see two other bodies lying near by. One of them, just to his right, was moaning and called out "I'm hit, I'm hit".
He now knew this man was William McKinney. Another man, who he now knew was Jim Wray, lay in front of him, face down. Lying on his side, he saw the paratrooper who had fired from the hip walk towards Wray's body.
Mr Mahon continued: "He saw Jim Wray's shoulders move and realised that he was still alive. The soldier pointed the rifle at Jim Wray's back and fired two shots into his back at point blank range.
"I was absolutely terrified and realised that if the soldier saw me move, he would shoot me as well. I lay quite still . . . and pretended to be dead." More shots rang out; the soldier shouted "I've got another one". The witness said he then looked around and saw the same soldier standing across the courtyard. "He must have seen me move, because he got down on one knee and aimed his rifle at me. I turned my head to look the other way and prepared to die," Mr Mahon said. "Just then, I heard a woman's voice shout out: 'Don't shoot - first aid'." Mr Mahon identified from a video film the soldier he had seen shoot Jim Wray. The woman who shouted "Don't shoot - first aid' was the Knights of Malta medic, Ms Eibhl∅n Lafferty, whom he later married.
Another witness, Mr John Kelly, told the inquiry his mother had a nervous breakdown after his younger brother, Michael, was shot dead on Bloody Sunday. "One winter we found her in the cemetery with a blanket trying to keep Michael warm at his grave."