Commander warned me to stay behind barricade - witness
The Commander of 1 Para, Colonel Derek Wilford, warned a photographer to stay behind an Army barricade on Bloody Sunday, it was claimed today.
Sean Canney claimed the senior officer gave him the advice ahead of the entry of his troops into Derry’s Bogside on January 30, 1972 when 13 Catholic civilians were shot dead.
Giving evidence to the new Inquiry into the killings, he said: "As a photo-journalist it was highly unusual to be stopped by an officer of that rank. It was usually a corporal or sergeant that would do that.
"I felt even at the very beginning, when I was stopped by Wilford that that in itself was highly unusual."
Mr Canney, now 51, later described the arrival of troops on the car park of the Rossville Flats and claimed one soldier fired from the hip a single burst of eight or nine shots towards the fleeing crowd.
He later spoke of seeing the killing of Bernard McGuigan, giving an account of him being shot in the head as he stepped out waving a white handkerchief towards the dying Patrick Doherty.
He was also certain he witnessed shooting from the city walls overlooking the Bogside describing a piece of turf 18 inches in front of him ‘‘disintegrating’’ and bits of dirt flying into the air.
"A fraction of a second later a heard the first of about eight single rifle shots," he said.
"Some of these hit the walls at the rear of Joseph Place behind me. I have no doubt that the shots were fired in a north-westerly direction from the city walls because I heard them hit the wall behind me."
