An investigator with the Royal Military Police yesterday denied having "watered down" statements from paratroopers who opened fired on Bloody Sunday.
Within hours of the killings the investigator, identified only as Mr Brobson, began face-to-face interviews with the soldiers deployed at the march. Mr Brobson was then aged 18 and had been working in the RMP's Special Investigation Branch for a matter of months.
He was despatched in the middle of the night from Lisburn to Derry to take the statements and at that time did not know that people had been killed, he told the inquiry.
Among those he interviewed was Soldier H, who fired at least 19 rounds. Mr Brobson could not remember any specific details about the interview with Soldier H. He also took a statement from Soldier M, who fired in Rossville Street.
Yesterday Mr Brobson was questioned about possible discrepancies which appear between Soldier M's 1972 RMP statement and the one he has given to this inquiry.
In his most recent evidence Soldier M says he is certain that he spoke originally of two men moving along the western side of Rossville Flats possibly carrying rifles. This is not reflected fully in his statement, said Mr Michael Mansfield QC, representing families of some the bereaved and wounded.
The men were both pushing long black stick-shaped objects in front of them, which Soldier M was "sure" were weapons, the inquiry was told.
Mr Mansfield asked Mr Brobson if he would have "watered it down in someway?" Mr Brobson replied: "No, if he had been adamant I am sure I would have included weapons in his statement." Mr Brobson said he did not adjust the statements in any way because he did not have details of how events unfolded on Bloody Sunday.
Like all the military personnel he interviewed that day, Soldier M was given the opportunity to read and make changes to his statement before signing it, Mr Brobson added.
He accepted that soldiers probably felt "apprehension" if they were likely to be questioned by the RMP. Mr Brobson also denied suggestions that he or another investigator intimidated witnesses or added reports of hearing a shot or a nailbomb explode into one of the soldier's statements.
Mr Brobson said: "No, the story must have come from the witness or else I would not have written it down."
Earlier, a senior military historian said that there was nothing suspicious about the disappearance of 1,000 army photographs taken on Bloody Sunday.
Mr John Harding, deputy head of the Ministry of Defence's Army Historical Branch responsible for co-ordinating MoD searches for the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, believes they may have had little historical value.