A former paratrooper, who has made a number of startling allegations about the killings of 13 unarmed civilians in Derry on Bloody Sunday, has been reported to the High Court in London for contempt of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
The now retired paratrooper, known as Soldier L, had a subpoena served on him on Tuesday after he had indicated to the Inquiry through his legal advisors that he would not be giving his controversial evidence to the Tribunal.
On Tuesday, the Inquiry's chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate, told Soldier L's barrister, Ms Rosamund Horwood-Smart QC, to inform her client that he had to turn up at the hearing by 9 o'clock yesterday morning and asked the barrister to "impress upon him the consequences of his failure to attend".
But Soldier L, whose mental state, the Inquiry was told, "appeared to be deteriorating", failed to turn up to give his evidence yesterday.
Lord Saville said he had been informed that Soldier L had also refused to attend today, and he asked Soldier L's junior counsel, Mr Alexander Milne, to confirm that.
Mr Milne also told the Inquiry that his instructing solicitors had again contacted Soldier L yesterday, but the former soldier still refused to give evidence.
The Inquiry's chairman said the non-attendance of Soldier L would be referred by the hearing to the High Court.
"In those circumstances, Mr Milne, unless there is anything else you wish to say, it seems to us, on our present state of information, that we have no alternative but to put in train the process of reporting your client to the High Court for contempt of this Tribunal," Lord Saville said.
In his 16-page statement to the Inquiry's solicitors, which was submitted last February, Soldier L said he was "quite clear" that he had seen the then Fr Edward Daly concealing rifles belonging to two civilian gunman who had been shot by paratroopers.
"I saw this priest walk across and pick up the two rifles and put them up his cassock or coat. I actually saw the rifles as he did this. What I saw was not a perception from the movement of the priest. The priest grabbed the barrels first and put them up his coat. I did not see the magazines or the length of the barrels, which would have helped me identify the type of weapons," Soldier L stated.
The former paratrooper also said that his intention on the day of Bloody Sunday was to find Martin McGuinness, then second in command of the Provisional IRA in Derry. "If I had seen him I would have had him. In speaking to one of my colleagues recently, he reminded me that there was talk among the lads that anyone who saw Bernadette Devlin should shoot her.
"My aim was to capture McGuinness and bring him back alive or alternatively dead, if he had been armed and intending to shoot," his statement said.