Para claims he saw unarmed protesters shot
A former British paratrooper today said he was “baffled” when his fellow paras began firing on Bloody Sunday killing 13 unarmed civil rights marchers.
The radio operator in the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment’s anti-tank platoon on Bloody Sunday is the first of the paratroopers on the ground to give evidence to the Saville Inquiry.
He gave his controversial – which is hotly contested – eyewitness account of the bloodshed on the Bogside on 30 January 1972 from behind a screen.
He is in a protection package, paid for by the Northern Ireland Office, to ensure his anonymity and cooperation with the Government-appointed inquiry which is expected to cost over €150m when it concludes.
As bereaved relatives and survivors watched from a few yards away, the former para who is now is his 50s and identified only as Soldier 027, declared his colleagues had opened fire “without justification“.
Just two soldiers alone, whom he identified as Lance Corporal F and Soldier G, were probably responsible for eight or 10 of the deaths that day, he claimed. Another 14 people were wounded.
He saw Lance Corporal F drop to one knee at the wall at Kells Walk, Rossville Street, and begin shooting at the centre of the people at the rubble barricade. Soldier 027, who said he was standing directly behind F, could see nothing to justify the shooting.
Under detailed questioning from Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the inquiry sitting in London, he said: “I think I was fairly baffled by what was happening.
“I was standing up. I think I could see the whole frontage of the crowd. I did not see anything that appeared to justify firing.”
In total the paras fired 108 shots that day. Soldier 027 said he scanned the crowd with his rifle sights but did not fire because he could not identify a gunman or a bomber.
He was asked if he saw anybody throwing anything from the barricade or from the crowd at the barricade. Soldier 027 replied “not that I noticed, no“.
He was asked if he saw anybody with what appeared to be a weapon or a bomb, he answered “no, I did not“.
He recalled that “a large number of soldiers” from the anti-tank platoon arrived at the wall quite quickly but could not identify them.
None of his colleagues who fired explained why or what they were shooting at, he said.
He described people in Rossville Street, between the barricade and the Rossville Flats, crouching and immobile, others were crawling, one was prostrate and another was kneeling by a man on the ground. There were six people killed near the barricade.
In his statement he said: “I had the distinct impression that this was a case of some soldiers realising this was an opportunity to fire their weapon and they didn’t want to miss the chance.”
He said he could not remember how many members of his section ended up in Glenfada Park. He knew that Lance Corporal F and Soldiers G, E and H were there in addition to himself – but added that other soldiers were there too.
He recalled he had relayed a ceasefire order before the soldiers, led by F and G, broke off into Glendfada Park area where four people were shot dead.
He could not say precisely what they intended to do but he believed they may have been trying to complete the arrested operation they had been deployed to do.
In his statement 027 said that as he approached Glenfada Park there were some 10 or 15 rounds fired in a series of rapid staccato shots which came into a burst, he recalled. These were probably from military self-loading rifles.
But under questioning today he said he had “no recollection” of seeing soldiers firing there and described his previous account of this as an “apparent inconsistency“.
Asked if he could see anything that would have justified a shot in Glenfada Park, 027 replied: “No, I do not recall anything that would have justified firing a shot.”
Soldier 027 said he was unable to elaborate upon the “very shocking and “very shocking” and “unspeakable acts” which took place that day and still haunt him.
He said: “It is not something I can articulate or express in words, it is something I carry with me.”
Soldier 027, who was 19 on Bloody Sunday, dubbed the paras as “the rottweilers of the British army“. They had been convinced they would face IRA gunfire.
They had bragged about going to Derry to “get some kills” after a briefing on the eve of Bloody Sunday and one was “exuberant” as firing began. He could not say if this soldier joined in the shooting.
He also remembered being passed a dum dum bullet as the paras waited in armoured vehicles to enter the Bogside.
Before the paras went in to the Bogside 027 says he recalls a seeing a puff of dust in the ground in front of him as they moved through a churchyard.
It was only later that he realised this may have been a bullet hitting theground. The paras could hear rioters at that time.
He claims that his statement to the Widgery Inquiry, the original investigation in Bloody Sunday, were fabricated to justify the shootings.
Like the record of his statement to the Royal Military Police, taken immediately after Bloody Sunday, it contained facts that had been “altered and added” to back up the official line.
It is believed 027 fears retribution from his former colleagues. The protection deal, which includes relocation and a salary, ends when he finishes giving his evidence.
Other paras, who have yet to give evidence to the inquiry, are expected to say they only fired at people who were armed.
The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.
