The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) has been criticised after it emerged yesterday that two of five remaining guns used by the British army on Bloody Sunday were destroyed last month despite instructions to safeguard them as evidence.
The Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, said the matter was one of "deep regret" and confirmed he had ordered an investigation by MOD police, which will be assisted by officers from West Mercia Constabulary. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, headed by Lord Saville, has been invited to send an observer.
A written question by the Labour Party's former Northern Ireland spokesman, Mr Kevin McNamara, in the House of Commons prompted Mr Hoon to admit that the weapons were destroyed on January 26th and 27th, more than three months after the ministry gave an undertaking to preserve them.
The Minister confirmed that of the 29 guns believed to have been fired on Bloody Sunday and forensically examined by the Widgery Tribunal at the time, 14 had been destroyed since November 1997, when they were declared obsolete. Another 10 were sold to private companies, leaving five in the hands of the MOD for safekeeping.
Mr McNamara said the matter was of an "extremely serious" nature. "We don't know whether what has occurred was a giant cock-up or something of a more sinister nature, but if it was a deliberate act we are looking at a case of perverting the course of justice, destroying evidence and contempt of the tribunal," he told The Irish Times.
While he was reassured that an independent observer would be admitted to the investigation, a number of urgent questions needed to be addressed, Mr McNamara added.
"Why did the MOD not realise that the guns would be needed in evidence once the Saville Inquiry was announced in January 1998?" According to Mr McNamara, 13 of the 14 obsolete guns were destroyed between January 1998 and September 1999 when Lord Saville asked to see them. "Why did Saville not ask for them until September 1999? And how come two of the remaining five guns could be destroyed despite the embargo on them following Lord Saville's request?"
Mr McNamara insisted it was vital to trace the 10 guns sold into private ownership. While he derived some comfort from the fact that Lord Widgery had all 29 guns examined during his inquiry in 1972, forensic science had moved on and it was, therefore, uncertain how reliable that evidence was, he added.
A spokesman for the Bloody Sunday Inquiry said it was "very gravely concerned" about developments.
Mr Gregory McCartney, a solicitor for the family of Mr Jimmy Wray, one of the 13 people killed on Bloody Sunday, said he did not believe in an accidental destruction of the guns.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said it was "very strange" that weapons which should have been carefully watched, as they were part of an inquiry, should have been destroyed.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, accused the British Prime Minister of deliberately undermining the efforts of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
The DUP MLA, Mr Nigel Dodds, said the furore over the two destroyed guns was in "stark contrast" to the attitude towards paramilitary guns in the North.