Republican News · Thursday 19 December 2002

'Ghastly people' killed their own - soldiers

BY FERN LANE

this type of rioting was quite usual and my fellow soldiers and I used to think of it as like being at a football match   - Soldier INQ145

In a statement to the Bloody Sunday inquiry on Tuesday a former Lance Bombardier in 22nd Light Air Defence Regiment said that he did not believe that all of the dead been shot by the British Army. Soldier INQ145 claimed that "At least four dead bodies were already in the Rossville flats before the afternoon of January 30, 1972. This was common knowledge at the time. I remember being at the RUC station at Strand Road, having something to eat after coming off duty at 6pm that evening. There were two soldiers in the police station and they said in relation to the shooting of Jack Duddy that he had been shot by 'one of his own'."

INQ145 went on to claim that petrol bombs were "definitely" thrown at British soldiers manning barrier 12 on Bloody Sunday. He also claimed that he had heard nail bombs going off in the distance. In his statement the soldier said that "this type of rioting was quite usual and my fellow soldiers and I used to think of it as like being at a football match", but denied that he could have confused his belief that petrol bombs were thrown on Bloody Sunday with one of the many other riot situations he had been involved with. Under questioning, INQ145 admitted that he had not actually seen any petrol bombers, merely that he had "seen petrol bombs coming".

He insisted, in direct contradiction to all the other evidence previously given to the tribunal, that he had heard between 10 and 20 explosions throughout the afternoon and that the intensity of the bombing increased after the paras had gone through the barricades into the Bogside. Asked whether he could have confused the sound of explosions with the sound of gunfire, he replied; "When you are in a situation like we was, you do not get confused. The only thing you are looking out for is yourself and your mates." Almost immediately afterwards, however, INQ145 told the inquiry that he could not remember which officer had given him order to fire gas in the direction of the crowd, saying "it was confused. It was confusing out there when people are coming at you."

However, another soldier, Lieutenant INQ109 was also present at barrier 12 and in his statement told the inquiry that "I do not recall hearing any explosions at this time nor at any other time that day. However, I would have had great difficulty in hearing any explosions, as it was extremely noisy as the riot was taking place at the barrier. I think it unlikely that nailbombs and petrol bombs would have been thrown at us that day because there were so many people involved in the march".

INQ145 claimed that he had been told over the radio that gunmen in the Rossville flats had fired two shots in the direction of soldiers, but could not explain why no mention of such a communication was recorded in the regimental log. He said that after the paras had gone through the barrier, a large group of rioters had reassembled in front of it some twenty minutes later and began throwing missiles. When it was suggested that this was not possible, as there was an entire battalion of paratroopers between the crowd and the barrier, he said, "most probably they was in between them, but what about the side streets? I mean, they was infiltrating from all over. They were coming from side streets, they were coming over walls, everything. Perhaps the Paras was in between them, but we have had situations like that before, where we put barriers across, but sometimes they have even got behind us. You know, it is just one of those situations." The former Lance Bombardier then became unwell and was unable to continue giving evidence.

The inquiry also heard from the statement of a former captain in the Coldstream Guards, who was commanding one of the barriers. In it he refers to the marchers on Bloody Sunday as "ghastly people", saying "as the company commander, I needed to be at the command post at all times. I imagine that as the march passed along in front of me and the men at the barrier, stones and bottles were thrown at the men by these ghastly people. As the men were standing behind the barrier, each man would have either been carrying his weapon on his shoulder or pointing it up in the air, depending on his personal choice."