British officer wanted bullets ‘planted’ on Ballymurphy wounded

A former British army medic has told an inquest that an officer suggested planting ammunition in the clothes of those wounded in the Ballymurphy shootings.

Nigel Mumford was attached to the second battalion of the parachute regiment during the incidents in the west Belfast estate in August 1971.

In his evidence, given via videolink, to the inquest into the deaths of 10 people in what became known as the ‘Ballymurphy Massacre’, he told Belfast Coroner’s Court that an officer suggested planting bullets in the clothing of some of the wounded. “I would not allow it,” he said.

When asked why he did not report what happened, Mr Mumford said he did not want to negatively impact his career.

“It takes a brave man to go up against an officer in the British army,” he said.

The Ballymurphy incidents started on August 9th, 1971 as the British army moved into republican strongholds to arrest IRA suspects after the introduction of the controversial policy of internment without trial. Six people were killed on August 9th including a Catholic priest and a mother-of-eight.

Mr Mumford disputed a witness statement given by David Callaghan who said he had been badly beaten by soldiers at a temporary army base at Henry Taggart Hall. Mr Mumford told the inquest he recalled treating Mr Callaghan for a bullet wound on his arm, and insisted nobody attacked him in the hall.

‘Perjury’

“What you have heard is perjury from families that want money, no soldier touched that man,” he said, to audible shock in the Belfast courtroom.

Claims that IRA gunmen were in the Ballymurphy area at the time have been disputed during the inquest hearings.

Mr Mumford told the inquest that he saw IRA gunmen armed with Thompson submachine guns, Armalite rifles and pistols outside Henry Taggart Hall.

He said he was shot at as he cleared stones thrown at the front of the hall. He said the task had been allocated to him as a punishment for shouting about the IRA to a crowd.

“The first gunfire started on me outside the Henry Taggart Hall. I could hear explosions and bullets going off everywhere, it was like Guy Fawkes Night,”Mr Mumford said.

He also told the inquest he heard an officer give the order to soldiers to shoot to kill.

Earlier, Mr Mumford described seeing soldiers psychologically torture people they interned. He said he saw internees with bags placed over their heads and their hands tied behind their backs, and said they were made to believe they were going to be pushed off a table and hung.

“It was to put the fear of God into them,” he said. “No one was pulling their fingernails off, no one was cutting them, no one was putting bruises on them. No one was taking teeth out with pliers, it was slight physical but nothing ‘torture, torture’.”

Inconsistencies

Questioned by counsel for Coroner Siobhan Keegan about inconsistencies between accounts he gave in a book he wrote about his army service and videos he posted on You Tube, Mr Mumford told the inquest that after he wrote his book one of his notepads was “stolen by a frog” in Tahiti.

Among those treated by Mr Mumford was Danny Teggart, who died after being shot 14 times. The medic outlined graphic details of his chest injuries during the hearing on Tuesday.

Spekaing outside court, Mr Teggart’s son, John said: “There were stories made up at the time that my father had bullets in his pockets, although there was no evidence to support that, and now we have where that came from and where it was stated that a member of 1 Para (1st Regiment), as he says, an officer in 1 Para, had asked him to plant bullets on the wounded and he refused.

“Bringing that out and clearing up the account for my father having bullets in his pockets, that was good for me, so that’s some good that’s come out of this new evidence today.”

The inquest continues.