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27
JANUARY 2005
This short hearing was held in London by video link in order to take evidence from Witness X.
A full transcript of the proceedings is available at http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org
[Numbers in square brackets refer to the code given to a particular document by the Inquiry.]
Witness X
Introduction
The final witness was heard at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry on 27 January 2005. With the benefit of anonymity, Witness X gave evidence from another location via video link to Courts 36 and 38 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. He was screened from the view of all but the Tribunal and counsel questioning him. The proceedings were transmitted to the Guildhall in Derry where the families and members of the public were assembled.
Witness X made a statement to the Inquiry on 9 February 2000. On 22 January 2004 he was subpoenaed to attend the Inquiry on 29 January 2004. On Witness X’s application, the subpoena was set aside by the Tribunal on 9 December 2004 and arrangements were made for him to give evidence on 27 January 2005.
Status of statements and documents
Witness X did not make a contemporaneous statement about Bloody Sunday.
A document, [AX1.2], purporting to be an RUC interview with Witness X in 1972, was apparently found among the papers of the Sunday Times Insight Team. The document records that Witness X admitted to having fired two magazines from an M1 carbine in Glenfada Park North during a joint operation on 30 January 1972 involving the Official and Provisional IRA.
Witness X made a statement to the Inquiry on 9 February 2000 refuting the contents of the RUC document [AX1.3].
On 9 November 2001, Witness X’s solicitor sent the Inquiry a three line document purporting to be a statement from Witness X. It quoted the alleged admission about the 2 magazines excluding, however, any reference to firing from Glenfada Park. Witness X said that he did not instruct anyone to exclude this reference and left it for his solicitor to explain the provenance of the document.
Membership of the IRA
On a number of occasions Witness X insisted that he was not a member of the Provisional IRA or Official IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday. He declined to reply when asked if he was a member of the IRA at any other time.
30 January 1972
Witness X said that he did not participate in the march on 30 January 1972 as he had been forbidden to attend by his parents. He stated that he stayed near his home in Creggan throughout the day.
‘Witness X document 1972’ AX1.1-1.2
A redacted version of this document was made available to the parties. As referred to above, this RUC document records a purported admission by Witness X that he was involved in a joint operation on Bloody Sunday in Rossville Street as a member of the Provisional IRA and that he fired two full magazines from Glenfada Park. It asserts that Witness X claimed that “PIRA8, PIRA9 were the only Provos in Rossville Street along with ‘the Stickies,’ Reg Tester, OIRA4 and OIRA6 were the only ‘Stickies’ [he] knew.” It also states that Witness X claimed to have joined the IRA in 1971 after which he received training in the use of a Garand, .303, .306, carbine and Thompson and participated in firing practise just outside Letterkenny.
Witness X confirmed that he was ‘lifted’ and interrogated by the RUC on two occasions in 1972, one of which was shortly after Bloody Sunday. He verified that the unredacted version of the RUC note accurately states his three Christian names, surname, address in 1972 and the day and month of his date of birth. He agreed that the year of birth, noted as 1972, was probably mistaken in any event. The document inaccurately recorded his place of employment in 1972.
Witness X accepted that he was not attempting to suggest that the document related to someone other than himself but denied any knowledge of the purported interview or having communicated any of the contents of the document to the RUC. He stressed that he did not receive weapons training in the use of the weapons referred to or participate in firing practise just outside Letterkenny at any time. He was adamant that he was not in action or in possession of a weapon at any stage on Bloody Sunday.
Witness X insisted that he does not know the person referred to in the document as having contacted him about joining the IRA. He confirmed that he knew PIRA8 and Reg Tester at the time of Bloody Sunday, but denied having mentioned them to the RUC during an interview. He now knows PIRA9 but did not know him at the time of Bloody Sunday and does not know OIRA4 or OIRA6.
G134b.906.9 – Letter written by a senior officer at HQ Lisburn to a colleague in Knock
This document records that during a further interview by the RUC, Witness X refused to talk about Bloody Sunday stating “ I have told you everything . . . I refuse to say anymore, I don’t want to get ten years at the Special Court.” Witness X had no recollection of such an interview ever having taken place.
PIRA24
In his statement to the Inquiry, [AX0001.0001], PIRA24 said that he did not believe the evidence attributed to Witness X concerning a joint operation on Bloody Sunday. According to PIRA24’s oral evidence, [Day 426/78], when he spoke to Witness X in a chance meeting during the previous week, he was told that the evidence in the RUC document was fabricated. It was accepted that, if PIRA24’s evidence was correct, this meeting took place on the day on which Witness X was first due to give evidence to the Inquiry.
Witness X said that this conversation did not take place and that he has never spoken to PIRA24 about the RUC document or about the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
