BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY: A former British army officer yesterday stood by his claim that British soldiers allowed a car containing a number of dead bodies to cross the Border from Derry to Donegal on the evening of the Bloody Sunday killings.
The now retired officer, who was a captain and the battalion signals officer in the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, whose members shot dead 13 civilians and wounded 13 others in the Bogside area of Derry on January 30th, 1972, described the decision to allow the car to proceed across the Border as "thoroughly unprofessional".
The witness, known to the tribunal as Inquiry 2033, said that on the day, he was based inside a command post vehicle known as the "Gin Palace". He told the inquiry's three judges that a report came through on the brigade radio net from a sub-unit at a Border crossing that a vehicle was attempting to cross into Donegal with a number of bodies inside.
"I do not remember whether this was a main customs crossing point or simply one of the many minor crossing points. The sub-unit requested guidance from brigade as to what they should to. The reply was to allow the vehicle to pass unchecked," he said.
"This occurred quite late in the day, certainly after the situation in the city had calmed down. I remember thinking this was a little strange and unprofessional.
"I thought the fact that bodies were being moved across the Border was quite significant. The IRA might have been involved and I felt that at least a search and check of the vehicle should have been carried out. I had no control over this event, but this and similar reports of vehicles carrying dead or injured bodies stayed in my memory ever since," he said.
The former captain said his recollection of this incident was confirmed by entries in the log of 8th Brigade, but counsel to the inquiry, Mr Christopher Clarke QC, told the witness that there was "nothing in the brigade log that appears to relate to this incident".
Mr Clarke, who had told the inquiry that there were no medical records to indicate that Bloody Sunday-related casualties had been treated in Donegal hospitals, said the incident should have been recorded "if people were doing their job properly".
The witness agreed and said the reaction was "thoroughly unprofessional and something should have been done".
Meanwhile, a witness who was a Royal Anglians soldier positioned on the city walls overlooking the Bogside on Bloody Sunday said that as the reports of the civilian casualties were relayed to soldiers in their headquarters, they initially laughed, believing each death was a victory against terrorists.
"However, as the number of deaths increased, so did the sense that there was something terribly wrong," he said.
"We knew something was wrong because you simply do not succeed in killing 13 civilian terrorist gunmen in one afternoon. First of all, there was no report of any weapons having been retrieved. If you shoot and kill a civilian gunman, it is usually nigh on impossible to recover the body or a weapon because the bodies and weapons are usually spirited away by the gunman's comrades before you can get to them," he told the inquiry.
The inquiry resumes on Monday.