The contrast between the evidence of civilians and of soldiers in relation to the shootings in Glenfada Park could scarcely be greater, Mr Christopher Clarke QC commented as he summarised the testimony concerning this sector of the Bloody Sunday events.
On the evidence of the civilians, there were no hostilities; no men with rifles, bombs or missiles. On the soldiers' account as given to the Widgery Inquiry, they met gunmen, a crowd throwing missiles, and men trying to throw a nail bomb and a petrol bomb.
On the soldiers' accounts, the number of people killed or wounded in the open was not accounted for by the number of bullets they said they fired.
In short, the circumstances in which the known dead and wounded were shot did not appear to tally to any substantial extent with the accounts given by the army of their shots; and conversely, the army's description of their shots did not sufficiently account for the injuries.
Earlier, Mr Clarke referred back to the evidence of Soldier H, who gave an account of firing 19 bullets at a window in Glenfada Park North.
The soldier has made a statement to this tribunal in which he says that as he entered the courtyard at Glenfada "I was terrified. I remember my knees were trembling . . . Coming under fire was absolutely terrifying, it was more frightening than my first parachute jump."
He claims that a civilian threw a nail bomb at him, although it did not explode. He then describes shooting a youth who was among a group of civilians at the far side of the courtyard, "holding a smoking object in one of his hands".
Soldier H says: I was absolutely sure it was a bomb." He then, according to his statement, shot and hit another youth who ran out and picked up the "bomb" after the first youth fell.
Then, Soldier H testifies, he saw what looked like the muzzle of a rifle poking out of a window, and he could see a shape moving behind the window. "I was aware that my colleagues were out in the open and I knew that it was a sniper behind the window and that if I did not engage him . . . then F and G or both of them would be shot."
He started firing at the window. "Each time I fired a shot, the shape . . . moved away from the window and then came back, so I kept firing . . . Altogether I fired 19 shots at the figure and it would have taken approximately 30 seconds to do so." He then had to change the magazine.
Later in his statement he says: "I wish in a lot of ways that I had said back in 1972 that I had lost one of my magazines and that I had only fired two rounds rather than 22. All I have done is told the truth."
Introducing this evidence, Mr Clarke commented that if Soldier H's account was inaccurate "it necessarily means that there are 18 shots which are wholly unaccounted for in the Glenfada Park area".