Ex-Para denies shooting woman on Bloody Sunday
A former paratrooper today dismissed suggestions he shot a woman on Bloody Sunday.
Lieutenant N, who was granted anonymity, told the Saville Inquiry he was certain he did not shoot Peggy Deery in the leg near the Rossville Flats in the Bogside area of Derry on January 30, 1972.
A sergeant major told the inquiry last week he saw Lieutenant N sitting in an armoured vehicle in what looked like a state of shock on Bloody Sunday.
Barry McDonald, QC, who represents most of the families of those killed and injured, asked the former soldier if he had gone to sit in the armoured car in a state of shock because he realised he had just shot a woman.
However, Lieutenant N insisted he was not in the armoured vehicle and he was certain he did not shoot a woman.
The soldier insisted he shot a man whom he believed was carrying a nail bomb.
Mr McDonald asked: “I wonder whether or not you thought it was a man when you fired the shot, but in fact immediately realised that it was a woman that you had hit?”
“No,” the soldier replied, before adding: “The person I shot was a man. There was absolutely no doubt then, or now, in my mind.”
Mr MacDonald asked: “Were you in such a state of shock when you realised you had shot a woman that you had to retreat to someone else’s pig [armoured vehicle]?”
“Please stop trying to put words into my mouth, I did not shoot a woman,” he replied.
Mr MacDonald asked Lieutenant N if he had any reason to believe the sergeant major would have invented the story that he saw him sitting in the armoured vehicle in a state of shock.
“You would have to ask him, I know of no reason,” he replied.
The soldier was the 711th witness to appear before the Saville Inquiry on day 323 of its hearings.
The inquiry is examining the events of January 30, 1972 when 13 civilians were shot dead by soldiers during a civil rights march in Derry. A 14th person died later.
The inquiry was adjourned until tomorrow.
