Bloody Sunday witness breaks down
A witness wept today as he described cries and groans coming from an Army Saracen vehicle where the body of a Bloody Sunday victim had been thrown by "laughing" paratroopers.
William Patrick McDonagh was overcome as he told the Saville Inquiry about hearing the sounds as he stood at a window of Derry’s Rossville Flats overlooking the scene of the killings that day 29 years ago.
Three of the 13 killed in Army gunfire on January 30 1972 are known to have been carried from the rubble barricade where they fell and placed in the back of a military personnel carrier. They were William Nash, Michael McDaid and John Young.
Mr McDonagh told the inquiry at the Guildhall, Derry, that he saw one body lifted by two soldiers - one holding it by the collar, the other by the belt and then thrown into the vehicle feet first. He said the soldiers were "laughing".
Under examination by Counsel to the Inquiry Cathryn McGahey, he said: "When there was a lull in the shooting, it seemed like time had stopped.
"I know I heard groans coming from the back of that Saracen.
"I heard cries come from the back of that Saracen," he said before his words gave way to sobbing.
