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11 - 15 FEBRUARY 2002
SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE
This week the Tribunal heard evidence from two RUC officers, Charles Graham and Thomas Hartop. The former, who was the officer responsible for processing all those arrested on Bloody Sunday, told the Tribunal that he had witnessed no acts of brutality inflicted on prisoners at Fort George. Thomas Hartop was patrolling the city Walls on the day. He did not hear any soldiers firing from the Walls and did not see or hear gunshots or nail bombs coming from the Rossville Flats.
The Tribunal also heard evidence from a number of civilian witnesses, including Dick Grogan who was a reporter for the Irish Times and who was told at an Official IRA press briefing on the eve of Bloody Sunday that no Official IRA member returned fire on the day.
Kathleen Hutton witnessed the attempt to carry the wounded Jackie Duddy to safety from a flat within the Rossville Flats, where she was later fired at by soldiers. She also witnessed bodies being carried from the rubble barricade and thrown into the back of army vehicles and saw Alexander Nash being shot as he went to his son’s assistance.
Mickey McLaughlin took shelter from the gunfire near Abbey Park, where he saw people administering mouth to mouth resuscitation to Gerard McKinney. Seamus Duffy heard shots from the direction of the Presbyterian church as the march moved down William Street. Towards the end of the day, he saw three men who were later identified to him as Official IRA members in a courtyard near the Bogside Inn. Two of the men appeared to be carrying weapons.
OTHER
ISSUES
On Monday, solicitors acting for the families and the wounded lodged an application for Judicial Review of Lord Saville’s decision to grant screening to 20 RUC officers due to testify in the Guildhall. The application was allowed and the Inquiry was barred from hearing the evidence of the screened officers due to give their evidence this week. Therefore, the Inquiry did not sit on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. The Judicial Review ruling is expected on Tuesday 19th February.
A full transcript of the proceedings is available at http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.ukb.
1. charles graham’s evidence
Mr Graham was a serving RUC officer at the time of Bloody Sunday.
1.1 Questions on behalf of the Tribunal
1.1.1 Knowledge of members of paramilitary organisations
Mr Graham wrote in his statement for the Inquiry that he knew people who were involved in paramilitary organisations at the time of Bloody Sunday. However, he no longer recalled the names of those people, apart from what he termed the ‘better known’ ones.
He said that many young men had signed up to the IRA out of shock at what had happened on Bloody Sunday. Once their shock had worn off, many of them had sought to leave the IRA but had been threatened if they did not remain involved. He said that, at the time, he would have known the names of those doing the threatening.
1.1.2 Experience of civil rights marches
Mr Graham had been involved in policing civil rights marches in Derry on a number of occasions prior to Bloody Sunday. He had never heard of these marches being used as cover for paramilitary activities, and had never heard weapons being fired at or near such marches. He had heard of riots being used as cover but was not sure whether this was before or after Bloody Sunday and had never witnessed this happening himself.
1.1.3 Role on Bloody Sunday
Mr Graham was told on the morning of Bloody Sunday that he was to be responsible for processing prisoners arrested at the march. He knew that the security forces were expecting some trouble as the march had been banned.
He thought that he had probably been briefed on his duties by Superintendent Forbes-Johnston, although could not recall the actual briefing. He said that there would typically have been two briefings, one for the sergeants and one for higher-ranking police officers. Each officer would have received typed instructions pertaining to their individual duties on the day.
1.1.4 Fort George
Mr Graham explained that the police were in charge of the old Royal Navy generator building within the Fort George compound, whereas other sections of the compound were under the control of the army.
1.1.5 Processing procedure for arrestees
Mr Graham was responsible for processing the 50 or so arrestees brought to Fort George on Bloody Sunday, one of whom was Fr Terence O’Keeffe.
He could not recall the exact sequence involved in processing, but said that, once the prisoner had been handed over to police custody, the arresting soldier would have nothing further to do with the prisoner.
Mr Graham was shown the testimony of Father O’Keeffe and Sergeant Gray, describing the process by which the prisoners were processed, and was asked to confirm whether or not he recalled the process happening in the manner described. He agreed that there would have been a two-stage interview process whereby the prisoner would first have been asked his name and address and would have been taken to the holding area. The prisoner would then be taken in again for police interviewing and charged. Contrary to the statements of Fr O’Keeffe and Sergeant Gray, Mr Graham could not recall the arresting soldier being present for the second stage of the interview process.
The decision to release or to charge the prisoners was entirely one for the police: if there was enough evidence, the prisoners were charged, but nobody was kept in police custody throughout the night.
He described the holding area as being a ‘shambles’, consisting of a large area divided into small sections with hessian-type sheeting. He further told the Inquiry that RUC or RMP (Royal Military Police) constables would have been in charge of taking statements from the arresting soldiers.
1.1.6 Police and army brutality
Mr Graham was read the sworn testimony of Fr O’Keeffe and asked whether he recalled the brutality inflicted upon prisoners, as described in Fr O’Keeffe’s statement.
He denied that there had been any harassment of the prisoners as they arrived at the compound, and did not see arrestees being made to run the gauntlet from the army vehicle into the compound. He recalled the soldiers having batons of approximately two and a half to three feet long, but did not see any of them carrying rubber hose.
He disagreed with Fr O’Keeffe’s statement that soldiers in green berets were in charge of the holding area, but said that soldiers from the 2nd Light Infantry, who wore green berets, had been outside the complex. He said that there were no soldiers present at all within the police holding centre, although later agreed that soldiers would have had to go into the holding area to identify persons they had arrested for rioting.
He stated categorically that here had been no acts of brutality while the prisoners were in police custody. He said that there was no barbed wire within the police section of the compound and that the account given by one man of having been made to hold his face close to a heater could not have been true. He also said that no complaints of ill treatment were made to him on the day.
Father Terence O’Keeffe
Mr Graham recalled questioning the soldier’s account of having seen Fr O’Keeffe throwing stones on the day. He thought that the soldier was lying as there was no mud on Fr O’Keeffe’s hands or clothing and he could not believe that a priest would have been involved in throwing stones.
He recalled that they had been having some trouble tying some of the prisoners to a particular arresting soldier and that one particular squaddie had arrived at the compound late in the day and had picked Fr O’Keeffe out of the crowd as having participated in riotous behaviour.
1.2 Questions on behalf of the families and wounded
1.2.1 Arrest operation
Mr Graham confirmed that he had not been told at the briefing on the day to expect upwards of 300 prisoners and had in fact been taken aback at the number of prisoners brought to Fort George that day, totalling approximately 50. The camp was ill prepared for 50 prisoners, let alone hundreds. He recalled there being approximately eight officers on duty at Fort George on the day to deal with the arrestees, although agreed that a 1972 police document stating that there were 12 officers on duty at the time was almost certainly accurate.
1.2.2 Role of the police and the army at Fort George
Mr Graham said that the only role of the army at Fort George on the day was to provide security. He said that, if they had tried to adopt a greater role, they would have been asked to leave. He was shown the evidence of Constable O’Neill who was also at Fort George on Bloody Sunday, stating that the army was running the show and that the RUC were only there as evidence gatherers. Mr Graham said that Mr O’Neill was wrong in his assessment of the situation and that the police were most definitely responsible for the prisoners taken to Fort George on Bloody Sunday.
1.2.3 Processing procedure for arrestees
Mr Macdonald suggested that the following eight-step procedure took place in order to process prisoners on the day:
1. The police took the names and particulars of the prisoners as they arrived at the compound
2. Soldiers picked out the prisoner they had arrested from the holding pens and the prisoner was made to stand against a wall
3. The prisoner’s photograph was taken with the arresting soldier
4. The arresting soldier’s statement form was filled in by the RMP
5. The prisoners were presented to Sergeant Graham: they were searched, their particulars were recorded on a register and they were taken to the second enclosure.
6. An arrest form was then filled in by the police
7. The decision to charge would be made
8. The prisoner would be released
Mr Graham recalled that this was indeed the procedure in place on the day.
1.2.4 Father Terence O’Keeffe
Mr Graham confirmed his belief that the soldier who identified Fr O’Keeffe had been lying. He also told the Inquiry that he had informed the soldier of his disbelief on the day.
He was shown the arrest form in relation to Fr O’Keeffe, which said that Soldier F (who identified Fr O’Keeffe) had spotted him throwing stones and had brought him to Fort George where he had handed him over to the military police. Mr Graham confirmed that this sworn account was clearly untrue, as Soldier F did not arrive until much later in the day.
1.2.5 Identification of prisoners
Although Mr Graham agreed that Fr O’Keeffe had been picked out at random by a soldier, he did not think that this practice was widespread on the day, and believed that it was limited to fewer than 12 cases. He did not recall individual soldiers identifying up to six different people on the day.
Mr Graham agreed that it appeared, with the benefit of hindsight, that there had been a systematic deceit on the part of the soldiers on the day with regard to the arrest forms, which were all solemnly signed by the soldiers and were to be used as the basis of evidence in a court case against a number of prisoners.
1.2.6 Police and army brutality
Mr Graham reiterated once again that he had not seen or heard any acts of brutality inflicted on the prisoners on Bloody Sunday. He said that the soldier from the Coldstream Guards, whose testimony to the Inquiry was that there was brutality inflicted on the prisoners both on their arrival at and during their detention in the compound, was lying. He further added that the guardsman in question would not have been in Fort George on the day. He further denied that there were any army dogs in the compound.
He was read further witness testimony describing army brutality, including Fr O’Keeffe’s statement which recalled a sandy-haired RUC officer (presumed to be Mr Graham), remonstrating with the Paras over the treatment of prisoners in the charge of the RUC. Mr Graham could not recall the incidents and went on to say that he was not denying that they had occurred.
1.2.7 Conspiracy of silence within the RUC
Mr Graham denied that there was a tradition within the RUC of closing ranks to protect other officers and soldiers. Mr Macdonald gave the example of the RUC Chief Constable at the time of the Drury investigation into the Samuel Devenney incident saying that the investigation had met with a conspiracy of silence amongst police officers in Derry. He asked Mr Graham to comment on this. Mr Graham responded that Mr Drury had discredited himself.
Lord Saville did not allow further questioning on the matter, nor did he allow Mr Macdonald’s question concerning how many police officers Mr Graham had reported for misconduct over his time in service. Mr Graham said that he was not involved in any conspiracy of silence and was trying to tell the truth as best he remembered it after 30 years.
1.2.8 Undercover SAS officer arrested on Bloody Sunday
Mr Graham had no recollection of an undercover SAS captain having been arrested on the day and having been released from the holding area to drink tea with the army major.
1.2.9 Debriefing session
Mr Graham agreed that, where there was an allegation of murder on the streets of Derry, it would have been the responsibility of the RUC to investigate it. However, he could not recall any discussion of a potential investigation into the deaths on the evening of Bloody Sunday or on the following day.
1.3 questions on behalf of the soldiers
1.3.1 Debriefing session
Mr Graham denied that he had ever been told what to say about Bloody Sunday in the immediate aftermath. He could did not recall RUC officers from various locations across the province who had participated in the policing operation on Bloody Sunday all coming together for a debriefing session.
1.3.2 Knowledge of members of paramilitary organisations
Mr Graham said that, at the time of Bloody Sunday, he would have known upwards of ten people who would have active in either wing of the IRA. He was not prepared to comment as to whether Mr Reg Tester was one of those he knew. He did not know at the time that Martin McGuinness was a member of the IRA.
1.3.3 Identification of rioters
Mr Graham said that, when trying to identify participants in rioting situations, one would have to focus on a small number of rioters in order to be sure that they would be correctly identified. He said that with his own knowledge of Derry, he would have been able to identify six or more rioters in one day, but he doubted very much whether soldiers who were unfamiliar with the city and with the faces would have been able to correctly identify such a number.
2. Thomas Hartop’s evidence
Mr Hartop joined the RUC in 1949 and was stationed in Dunmurray, County Antrim, at the time of Bloody Sunday.
2.1 questions on behalf of the tribunal
2.1.1 Briefing and role assigned on Bloody Sunday
Mr Hartop believed that he travelled from Dunmurray to Derry on the morning of Bloody Sunday, where he assumed he had attended a briefing, although he had no specific recollection of that briefing. He was assigned five constables, with the specific duty of preventing rival factions of the community from meeting up and of preventing civilians from either side getting onto the city Walls. He took up position in the area of Magazine Street Upper, between Butcher Street and Society Street.
2.1.2 Firing from the city Walls
Mr Hartop told the Inquiry that there were approximately 30 soldiers stationed along the Walls. He and the five constables walked up and down the street in front of the Walls throughout the afternoon and did not see or hear any of the soldiers on the walls firing at any point.
2.1.3 Sound of gunfire and rioting
Mr Hartop did not have a view of the Bogside as the Walls blocked his view. He did not hear automatic fire at any stage during the day, although he explained that he was not expecting live fire and therefore must have assumed that the shots fired were rubber bullets. In his 1972 statement, he wrote that he had heard the sound of stones being thrown in the Rossville Street area, although he now had no recollection of this.
Mr Hartop was shown the contemporaneous statements of three of the officers in his command on Bloody Sunday, namely Police Constables Edmonds, Conroy and McKinty. All stated that they heard automatic fire on the day. Mr Hartop confirmed that he had not heard any such fire and could not recall any of them saying that they heard it on the day.
He was also shown the statement of PC Hamilton who was also in his command on the day, which said that he had heard a nail bomb being thrown from the Rossville Flats, followed by the sound of automatic fire coming from a top floor flat in the Rossville Flats. PC Hamilton said that he and the other RUC officers were told to take cover, subsequent to which he heard the sound of automatic weapons and rubber bullets. Mr Hartop had no recollection of this happening, nor of PC Hamilton telling him that this had occurred.
Prior to the current Inquiry, Mr Hartop had not seen the statements of the constables under his command on Bloody Sunday and could not recall who had asked him to make his own contemporaneous statement.
2.1.4 Two bodies
At one stage, Mr Hartop climbed up onto the city Walls and glanced over into the Bogside. He saw two bodies relatively close together, one surrounded by a pool of blood. He could no longer recall exactly where he saw the bodies, but thought that they were either at the gable end of Block 1 of the Rossville flats or in the vicinity of Joseph Place.
3. Dick grogan’s evidence
Mr Grogan is a newspaper reporter and was working on the foreign desk of the Irish Times at the time of Bloody Sunday. He had been a reporter for 12 years and had extensive experience of covering events in Northern Ireland. Mr Grogan was in Derry to research a newspaper piece concerning the ‘no-go areas’, whereas his colleague Martin Cowley was responsible for covering the march itself.
3.1 Questions on behalf of the tribunal
3.1.1 Expected trouble on the march
Mr Grogan did not attend the British Army press briefing,
held in the City Hotel on the eve of the march, nor was he made aware of the
warning given by a British Army officer to Pat Cashman, who was a journalist
with the Irish Press.
He was not aware of the IRA’s intentions on the day, but would have assumed that they would not get involved, as it was a civil rights march. He had covered a number of civil rights marches in Northern Ireland prior to Bloody Sunday and had never seen weapons used against the security forces, although he said that, depending on the manner in which a march was prevented from reaching its destination, there could be trouble from marchers throwing stones at the police and army.
3.1.2 Barrier 14
Mr Grogan observed the bulk of the march turning right from William Street into Rossville Street. However, he went with the crowd of approximately 100 to 150 people who had continued down to Barrier 14, where he took photographs of stones being thrown at the army. He said that once the water canon and the CS gas were deployed, the crowd dispersed. He recalled the media being sprayed by the water canon and felt that they had got caught in the sweep of the spray.
3.1.3 Gas
Mr Grogan recalled the army using CS gas against the crowd, but did not recall a gas canister being thrown from the crowd towards the army. He said that there was an enormous amount of gas in the air and three gas canisters landed very to near him, affecting him severely. He moved away from the barrier, along William Street into the area of Columbcille Court where he collapsed coughing, trying to get his breath back.
3.1.4 Sound of gun fire
As Mr Grogan got up and began to walk, he heard a large number of single high velocity gunshots, fired in rapid succession by many weapons. These were the first shots he had heard that day. At that stage, he was not aware of army vehicles in the vicinity or of people shouting that the army was coming in.
3.1.5 Abbey Park
Mr Grogan heard the shots getting nearer, and then heard three or four shots fired very close to where he was. He decided to get under cover and ran southwards towards Abbey Park. As he was sheltering at the gable end of the block, he saw people running into a house and decided to follow them in. When he got inside the house, there were approximately 30 people taking shelter in the kitchen.
He went to the window of the house which looked out onto Fahan Street West. After approximately five to fifteen minutes, during a lull in the shooting, he saw a line of men coming across Fahan Street, waving white handkerchiefs. At first he thought that the young men were surrendering to the army. However, when he followed them towards the courtyard of Abbey Park and glanced into the courtyard, he saw two bodies in the corner, and realised that the men were going to their assistance.
Mr Grogan explained that he did not get a chance to see the bodies in any detail as shots had rung out as he had looked into the courtyard and he ran back to the house where he had been sheltering.
3.1.6 Vinny Coyle’s house
Mr Grogan left the house where he was sheltering to look for a telephone. He ended up in Vinny Coyle’s house where he spoke to an officer in the Irish Army camp at Finner in Donegal and asked them to send ambulances and medical aid. He also told the duty officer that there were accounts of 12 people having been shot dead. He also called his office to tell them that there had been a major incident.
Mr Grogan’s current recollection from the account he gave in a newspaper article he wrote on 31 January 1972 with regard to the detail of how he knew there was a telephone in the house and how he connected to the Irish Army. However, in both accounts, Mr Grogan’s original intention had been to call the British Army to ask them to cease fire so that people could tend to the wounded. It had been the officer at the end of the telephone who had told him that he was in fact speaking to the Irish not the British Army.
He had no recollection of seeing anyone else in the house.
3.1.7 Encounter with members of the Provisional IRA
Mr Grogan’s contemporaneous article stated that he met rank and file members of the Provisional IRA (PIRA) who told him that the PIRA had not been involved on the day. They had also told him that a few Official IRA (OIRA) members had fired back at the troops. Mr Grogan no longer had any recollection of this encounter.
3.1.8 Official IRA press briefing
On the evening of Bloody Sunday, Mr Grogan attended an OIRA press briefing with seven or eight fellow journalists. They were all picked up from the City Hotel, blindfolded and driven for 10 minutes to the Creggan where they were taken into a room. He said that there were three OIRA men present, although he never found out their ranks or their names.
Mr Grogan could not recall the detail of the conference, but remembered that the OIRA had threatened retaliation for the day’s events and had stated categorically that no OIRA member had fired at any time in the immediate vicinity.
3.2 questions on behalf of the soldiers
3.2.1 Statement to the BSI
Mr Grogan was asked whether he had refreshed his memory by reading his newspaper article prior to making his statement to Eversheds. He replied that the person taking his statement had brought copies of the report to the meeting.
He also said that, in his opinion, the statement that he had signed was more a summary of what he had told the statement-taker, as opposed to a detailed account of what he had said. He mentioned in particular that the fact that he had seen a Saracen enter the Bogside at 10:00 am on the morning of Bloody Sunday had been omitted from his statement.
3.2.2 Sound of blast bombs
Mr Grogan recalled hearing the sound of one or two blast bombs on the morning of Bloody Sunday, shortly after the Saracen entered William Street at 10:00 am. Mr Grogan explained that what he termed ‘blast bomb’ was a device that was designed to make a very loud bang, but which was unable to cause serious damage. He said that they were put under the wheels of vehicles to cause psychological as opposed to physical damage and were not anti-personnel devices.
3.2.3 Veracity of contemporaneous newspaper article
Mr Grogan said that he would not have made up his encounter with members of the PIRA on the eve of Bloody Sunday, although he no longer had any recollection of the meeting. He denied that his report was in any way trying to colour the events of the day, and said that he had intended to provide as accurately as possible a narrative account of the events of the day.
3.2.4 Vinny Coyle’s house
Mr Grogan did not see anybody else in the house, and believed that he may have been there before they brought in the wounded. He added that, being a reporter, he would have stayed to interview wounded people had they been present in the house.
3.2.5 Encounter with members of the Provisional IRA
Mr Grogan wrote in his 1972 newspaper article that he had been told by the PIRA that the OIRA had had a .303 rifle, a .22 rifle and a revolver on the day. Mr Grogan reiterated that he now had no recollection of this encounter, but that he would not have made it up.
3.2.6 Ambulances requested from Irish Army
Mr Grogan had understood from his telephone conversation that the Irish Army was sending ambulances to the border. He heard at a later date that one ambulance had been sent to the border but that it had not been used.
4. Kathleen hutton’s evidence
Ms Hutton (née Carlin) was 16 at the time of Bloody Sunday. She attended the march with her friends Ann Gallagher, Kathleen McGuinness and Celine Kirny.
4.1 questions on behalf of the tribunal
4.1.1 Rossville Flats
Ms Hutton became afraid at some stage on the march and she and her friend Ann Gallagher ran to Ms Gallagher’s aunt’s home in the Rossville Flats. The flat looked out over the rubble barricade at the front and over the Rossville Flats car park at the rear.
4.1.2 Jackie Duddy
Ms Hutton saw Jackie Duddy being carried through the car park by a group of people, including Father Daly and a Knight of Malta. Her 1972 statement described the people assisting Jackie Duddy, waving a white handkerchief and being shot at by the army. The handkerchief was then dipped in Jackie Duddy’s blood in an attempt to demonstrate to the army that he was wounded. Her statement recorded that the army continued to fire.
4.1.3 Alexander Nash
Ms Hutton saw an older man, whom she now knows to be Alexander Nash, going towards the rubble barricade with his hands in the air. She heard a shot ring out and when she next looked out of the window, Mr Nash was lying on the ground near the barricade.
4.1.4 Arrests
Ms Hutton saw a group of people, including a Knight of Malta, walking along the street with their hands up and clasped behind their heads. She assumed that they had been arrested.
4.1.5 Removal of bodies from the rubble barricade
Ms Hutton saw an army Saracen marked near the barricade. The back doors of the vehicle were facing the flat, and there were three or four soldiers with guns standing beside it. Two other soldiers approached the barricade and picked up the bodies and threw them into the back of the Saracen. Ms Hutton described the soldiers as showing no care or respect for the bodies.
Ms Hutton saw a priest running along the road and shouted down at him to go to the bodies in the Saracen. She was not able to identify the priest, who made several unsuccessful attempts to get to the bodies.
She became hysterical as she thought that she had seen some of the bodies in the back of the Saracen move. She opened the window and shouted to the soldiers that they would drown in their own blood if they were left lying the way they were.
The soldiers standing by the Saracen aimed and fired three or four shots in the direction of the window from which she was shouting. She believed that they had fired to shut her up rather than to hit her as none of the bullets hit the window.
4.1.6 1972 statement
Ms Hutton made a statement shortly after Bloody Sunday at the premises of the chemist, Otto Schlindwein, which was near her house. She thought that she had heard by word of mouth that people were giving statements, and recalled there being a queue of people waiting to give their statement.
4.1.7 Interviews in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday
Ms Hutton had an interview with Radio Eireann in the days following Bloody Sunday. She was also interviewed by a Swedish newspaper reporter, who took her back to the Rossville Flats and showed her the bullet marks at the front of the flats.
In both these interviews, Ms Hutton described seeing an old man being put up against a wall by the army and being batoned and kicked repeatedly before being arrested. She no longer had any specific recollection of this event and said that she had spent the last thirty years trying to forget what she had seen on the day.
The Swedish reporter sent her a copy of the article he wrote which was in Swedish. He translated the headline, and apologised for the fact that the newspaper editor had tried to discredit her statement by reference to the death of her father, Tommy Carlin, who was killed in a bomb explosion in 1970. The headline read: ‘Bomber’s daughter tells of alleged murders on Bloody Sunday’.
4.2 questions on behalf of the soldiers
4.2.1 Civilian fire
Ms Hutton did not hear any firing from the Rossville Flats or from the car park and did not see any nail bombs being thrown from the flats. She told the Inquiry that she had never heard of Father Daly’s gunman, and that she had always avoided all news stories regarding Bloody Sunday.
5.
Mickey mcLAUGHLIN’S
EVIDENCE
5.1 questions on behalf of the tribunal
5.1.1 Rubble barricade
Mr McLaughlin left Barrier 14 when the army deployed the water canon and made his way towards Abbey Park, past the rubble barricade. He saw people at the barricade standing around, but did not see anybody carrying a weapon or collecting stones.
5.1.2 Abbey Park
As he arrived towards Glenfada Park North, he heard rapid fire, involving lots of guns firing at the same time. There were a number of people in the courtyard, running through the alleyway towards Abbey Park. Mr McLaughlin followed them through and took shelter behind a low wall.
He saw a man he recognised as Gerry McCauley, running around and looking very confused. He appeared to be running towards the gunfire, so Mr McLaughlin shouted at him to take shelter behind the low wall.
At that time, there was rapid fire coming from Glenfada Park, which lasted for approximately three to four minutes. It sounded like a number of different guns were being fired simultaneously.
5.1.3 Gerard McKinney
Before Mr McLaughlin took shelter behind the wall, he had heard somebody, whom he later found out to be Gerry McKinney, shouting for help. However, due to the gunfire, nobody was able to get to him to help him. Mr McLaughlin assumed he had had a heart attack as, during a lull in the shooting, he saw people giving him a heart massage and performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
At almost the same time as the people came out of houses in Abbey Park to assist Gerard McKinney, Mr McLaughlin saw two soldiers look round the gable wall of Glenfada Park South. They were both smiling and laughing and appeared in high spirits, but made no attempt to approach the people helping Mr McKinney.
6. Seamus duffy’s evidence
6.1 questions on behalf of the tribunal
6.1.1 Military activity near the Presbyterian church prior to Bloody Sunday
Mr Duffy went on the march with a friend, Gerry Clark. Both of them were electricians and had been rewiring a building known as the Old Manse, next to the Presbyterian Church, in the week leading up to Bloody Sunday. He told the Inquiry that there had been a lot of activity involving soldiers in the alleyway between the church and the Old Manse during the week, with soldiers coming and going.
6.1.2 Gun shots from direction of Presbyterian church
Mr Duffy was on the march on William Street when he heard four or five SLR (self loading rifle) shots ring out from the direction of the Presbyterian church, causing pigeons in the adjoining waste ground to scatter. He agreed with Counsel’s suggestion that the shot might well have come from a building on William Street itself.
He said that, at the time the shots were fired, the head of the march was just about to turn into Rossville Street and that there was no trouble of any kind at the time.
6.1.3 Barrier 14
Mr Duffy proceeded down to Barrier 14 where he threw stones at the army from behind a corrugated iron shield.
6.1.4 Rossville Street
As Mr Duffy moved onto Rossville Street, he heard the sound of Saracen vehicle engines and the noise of a Saracen door open. He looked around and saw a soldier jump out of the vehicle and assume the firing position. Mr Duffy turned to run so did not see the soldier shoot, but he heard the crack of live fire.
6.1.5 Courtyard near the Bogside Inn
Mr Duffy made his way to a courtyard near the Bogside Inn where Ivan Cooper was getting people to huddle behind a wall to protect themselves from the firing. He also saw three young men, whom he later found out were members of the OIRA. He later found out that one of these men was Reg Tester. People were remonstrating with the men, two of whom appeared to have guns hidden beneath their clothing, telling them to get off side.
6.2 questions on behalf of the soldiers
6.2.1 Courtyard near the Bogside Inn
Other than the three OIRA men he saw in the courtyard, Mr Duffy saw no other gunmen on the day. He said that, approximately two minutes after the men left the courtyard, the army resumed fire into the courtyard. Mr Duffy at no time heard the OIRA men returning fire.
Mr Duffy did not see the three OIRA men arrive in a car and confirmed that he did not hear or see any civilian firing a gun on the day.
TIMETABLE OF
PROCEEDINGS
Monday 11th: Paragraphs 1 and 2
Wednesday 13th: Paragraphs 3 to 6
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
