The Bloody Sunday inquiry has in its possession a Special Branch document which claims that one of the 13 people wounded during the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry 30 years ago was a member of Fianna na hÉireann, the junior wing of the Provisional IRA.
The inquiry obtained the document in May of last year, six months before Mr Joseph Mahon, who is named in the document, gave his evidence to the inquiry's three judges. The contents of the document were not put to Mr Mahon when he gave his oral evidence to the inquiry.
The document, stamped Royal Ulster Constabulary N Division, 9th February 1972, Special Branch, Londonderry, was signed by a chief inspector. It states: "the above named (Joseph Mahon) came under notice in August 1970 when he was identified as a member of Fianna na hÉireann in Londonderry.
"This group to which he belongs is aligned to the Provisional IRA. Since August 1970 he has not come under notice from a Special Branch aspect."
In a letter to the solicitor to the inquiry, Mr John Tate, Mr Mahon's solicitor, Mr Ciaran Shiels, said the late disclosure last Friday of the Special Branch document relating to Mr Mahon was "fundamentally unfair" to his client.
"It is noted that the inquiry had this document in its possession when Mr Mahon gave his evidence," the letter added.
As a result of the disclosure, Mr Mahon made a supplementary statement on Tuesday which his solicitor forwarded to the inquiry. In his statement, Mr Mahon said the allegation that he was a member of the junior wing of the Provisional IRA "is baseless and untrue".He said he was never arrested in connection with the alleged membership.
Mr Mahon, who was shot in the right hip in the Bogside's Glenfada Park on Bloody Sunday, said that during his recuperation period in hospital after he had been wounded, the membership allegation was never put to him by police officers. "If the RUC genuinely believed that I was a member of the Fianna, then I find it inconceivable that I was not interned, particularly as other teenagers were interned at that time," his statement said.
"I believe that the RUC Special Branch, in preparing this report, did so deliberately to smear my name because I was one of those unlawfully shot on Bloody Sunday," Mr Mahon added.
In a written reply to Mr Shiels's letter, the assistant solicitor to the inquiry, Ms Nicola Enston, stated that the PSNI has been asked to disclose to the inquiry all documents it has in respect of the Bloody Sunday dead and wounded.
Another February 1972 Special Branch document, which the inquiry also received 18 months ago, claims that Gerry Donaghy, who was shot dead on Bloody Sunday, was found with a belt of blank .303 cases in his possession on August 27th, 1970.
The document added that Mr Donaghy "was not known to be a member of any illegal organisation prior to his death on 30th January, 1972". However, Mr Donaghy's name is on the IRA's roll of honour as having been a member of Na Fianna.