BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY: A former paratrooper who claimed he wished to take Mr Martin McGuinness dead or alive on Bloody Sunday had him in his rifle sights during earlier street disturbances in Belfast, the Saville Inquiry heard yesterday.
Soldier L said he was waiting for the order to shoot Mr McGuinness dead after seeing him throw bricks and bottles at soldiers.
He claimed he saw the Sinn Féin MP conducting a running battle with soldiers.
Ms Cathryn McGahey, counsel to the inquiry, asked whether he was sure it was Mr McGuinness.
"Positive, I had him in my rifle sights and I was just waiting for the order to shoot him dead," he replied.
Mr McGuinness has already admitted being the IRA's second-in-command in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday.
In his statement to the inquiry, Soldier L, who fired a number of shots in Derry on January 30th, 1972, also controversially claimed that the former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly - then a parish priest - concealed two rifles under his cassock.
He also claimed he saw another soldier fire so many shots into a body at point-blank range that when colleagues lifted it to put it into a body bag, it split in two. The soldier said he saw plastic explosives at the rubble barricade in Rossville Street, where four of the victims were shot dead.
Soldier L, who was threatened with contempt of court proceedings for refusing to appear before the inquiry last month, gave evidence from behind a screen yesterday.
Legal action began when he failed to turn up to give evidence at Methodist Central Hall in London, telling his lawyers he was feeling increasingly fearful.
However, proceedings were suspended when it was confirmed he was prepared to co-operate as long as he was screened from public view.
The inquiry is investigating the events of January 30th, 1972 when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by paratroopers during a civil rights march in Derry's Bogside area. A 14th man died later.
The inquiry continues. - (PA)