A former British soldier who was present at the scene of a fatal shooting by another soldier in Belfast has revealed the British Army knew immediately that the killing was a mistake, but still attempted to cover up the murder of an innocent Catholic father-of-six.

Henry Thornton, known as Harry (pictured), was shot dead by the Parachute Regiment in 1971 when the work van he was travelling in backfired as it passed an RUC police base.

Mr Thornton, a father-of-six from County Armagh, was killed instantly as he travelled along the Springfield Road in a work van with a colleague in west Belfast in August 1971.

The van backfired, and a paratrooper, later named as the late Sergeant Allan McVitie, opened fire through the rear window of the van, shooting Mr Thornton twice in the head.

Matt Innes, who was stationed in Belfast in 1971, said he was the very first person to directly speak to a witness to the killing of the 28-year-old, but revealed he was never contacted afterwards about the incident by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The killing sparked sustained rioting in west Belfast, and occurred two days before the Ballymurphy Massacre, in which 10 people were shot dead by paratroopers, and an eleventh victim died of a heart attack after allegedly being put through a mock execution by soldiers.

In 2012, Mr Thornton’s widow Mary received a letter of apology from the British government, confirming her husband had been innocent.

At a long-delayed inquest into Mr Thornton’s death in 2015, a former British soldier gave evidence anonymously, claiming he had witnessed the incident from a watchtower and said he saw a weapon being pointed out of the van’s window, and heard the distinct sound of gunfire before McVitie gave chase and opened fire.

The witness was accused of telling “lie after lie” in order to cover up the truth.

A coroner eventually found the actions of McVitie were “neither a necessary nor a reasonable nor a proportionate response to the situation (McVitie) either actually encountered or thought that he encountered”.

In a new book about his time in the Parachute Regiment, Matthew Innes claims the British Army knew the truth about Mr Thornton’s death within seconds of the shooting.

He claims he was the first person to speak with a young fellow paratrooper who witnessed it, and said his colleague was “crystal clear” about the vehicle backfiring.

In the book, the Scottish ex-serviceman, now in his 70s, describes the “chaos” within the regiment in Belfast at the outbreak of the Troubles, and said a number of paratroopers went “rogue” and were “psychopaths”.

He describes arriving at Henry Taggart Hall, where paratroopers from the regiment’s B Company were stationed during the Ballymurphy Massacre, and hearing paras say: “Anything moving out there is considered IRA and should be f*****g shot, we’re taking no chances with any of these b******s.”

Mr Innes, who gave evidence anonymously in 2019 to the inquest into the Ballymurphy Massacre deaths, said in the book that young regiment members were “completely brainwashed” and said poor leadership contributed to the killings in Ballymurphy.

Recounting the killing of Mr Thornton, he said he was visiting Springfield Road RUC Station, where paratroopers were stationed, to drop off documents.

“I was standing alone just inside the front entrance door of the police station when a young Para soldier rushed through, almost knocking me over, screaming out loud,” he states in the memoir.

“‘The Sergeant has just blown a guy’s f*****g head off, mistaking the backfiring of a van for gunfire.’

“So we, the Parachute Regiment, knew almost immediately that a mistake had been made. We now know that the Para he was referring to, who fired the fatal shot, is Sergeant McVitie.

“I was the first person this young paratrooper spoke to in the police station, literally just after the shooting had taken place. He was crystal clear when telling me the vehicle had backfired. The paratrooper, who shot the man, mistakenly believed they were under fire.”

Speaking of the later inquest, Mr Innes writes about Coroner Jim Kitson expressing “surprise and disappointment” at a preliminary hearing over “the failure of the MoD to identify paratroopers who were on location at the time”.

Mr Innes continues: “The MoD never made any contact with me over the years; given that I was in constant touch with HMRC, it was a simple exercise to find my address.

“The British Army and the MoD clearly tried to cover up this case.”

He adds: “Regrettably, the Parachute Regiment made multiple attempts to defend themselves, asserting that they had come under fire. Had the Parachute Regiment revealed the truth about the shooting, rather than trying to conceal it for many years, then it would have been dealt with in a matter of days.”