Saville: Officer 'unwittingly gave wrong information'
The man who commanded the British army on Bloody Sunday today said he had unknowingly given “inaccurate” information to the original inquiry into the shootings.
Major General Patrick MacLellan, a brigadier and commander of 8th Brigade in January 1972, told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that his orders had been breached, but there was no cover-up launched to hide that fact.
British paratroopers shot dead 13 unarmed men on a Derry civil rights march on 30 January 1972.
Maj Gen MacLellan said he “certainly did not intend to mislead” the British government-appointed Widgery Inquiry, which was held within weeks of the shootings.
The discrepancy arose because he was not aware at the time that his orders had been broken, he told the inquiry sitting in London.
His orders were that soldiers were to arrest rioters in the William Street/Rossville Street area, known locally as Aggro Corner, and not to become involved in a running battle down Rossville Street.
Army logs record his order for one unit to enter, but several units entered at different points. They also became involved in a running battle after driving in armoured vehicles down to the Rossville Flats.
Under cross-examination from Christopher Clarke QC, counsel for the inquiry, Maj Gen MacLellan said that when he gave evidence to the Widgery Inquiry he did not believe his orders had been broken.
This realisation dawned on him only after he took the stand last week.
He told the inquiry: “I do not think I did until comparatively recently when we went through it in great detail with Mr Clarke’s questioning“.
Maj Gen MacLellan had told Widgery that he knew that three sub units were going to be deployed and they would move in through Barrier 14 and the Little James Street barriers.
Mr Clarke asked: “If, as you accept seems likely, that the order was in fact as recorded in the log, that evidence was inaccurate, was it not?”
Any error was “not deliberately” made, Maj Gen MacLellan said.
He pointed out that Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford, Commander of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, had three companies that could be called on for the operation.
He did not consider that using more than one unit was breaching his orders, but there was “obviously a breach of the geographical restriction” he had ordered in demanding no running battle down Rossville Street.
He dismissed as “absolute rubbish” claims that he was so affected in having 1 Para imposed upon him that he refused help in properly briefing them.
Maj Gen MacLellan drew up the operational plan and took charge on the day from his headquarters at Ebrington Barracks. No arrest operation was to be launched without his direct order.
This was only to be launched after separation between rioters and innocent civilians had been achieved.
Maj Gen MacLellan told the inquiry he could not recall anything on the day that made him think his order had been breached.
