A key witness who is in hiding and guarded by British police under a high-level witness protection scheme claims that unknown assailants have threatened his life if he persists with allegations. The allegations he has already made concern paratroopers who carried out the Bloody Sunday killings.
The former soldier, identified only as Private 027, has now asked to be screened from public view when he comes to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry when it moves to a new venue in London. The Metropolitan Police have described his fears as "genuine" and "realistic".
Private 027 is acknowledged by the Saville tribunal to be a witness whose evidence will be very important to the inquiry. His allegations were a vital part of the dossier presented by the Irish Government to the British government - a dossier believed to have been an important factor in the decision by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, in 1998 to announce a new inquiry into the killings.
027, who was one of the paratroopers who invaded the Bogside on January 30th, 1972, has accused his colleagues of "reckless shooting" or worse on that day, and he claims that some of them were later involved in a "cover- up".
After he contacted the inquiry in April, 1998, negotiations between his solicitor, the inquiry and the Northern Ireland Office led to the NIO approving a security package for his protection.
He is believed to have been given a new identity, a car, a substantial sum of money towards a deposit on a house pending his appearance as a witness at the inquiry.
The NIO is to apply to the Saville tribunal this week, on 027's behalf, for an order directing that he be screened from the public while giving evidence and that he must not be photographed or filmed while coming or going from the inquiry.
The application is backed up by a statement signed by Det Supt Geoffrey Hunt, head of the Metropolitan Police witness protection unit, who says it would "seriously undermine" the protection so far provided to 027 if he was exposed to public view. Supt Hunt says his officers advise that 027 has "a real and genuine fear for his personal safety" if he gives evidence open to public view.
The Metropolitan Police "have a concern that any compromise of his new identity will put him at serious risk".
"Others attached to the regiment, who may feel loyal to the regiment . . . may deem this individual to be a 'traitor'," says Supt Hunt in his statement. "I am aware that there have been attempts to identify 027 through the Internet, \ an inquiry into this activity failed to identify who was responsible".
The superintendent notes that 027 has reported to the police two incidents which he believes are evidence of a direct attack on him, or those close to him, because of his comments about Bloody Sunday.
However, in a recent letter to the Saville tribunal, 027's solicitor, Mr Geoffrey Bindman, says the soldier revealed that "his landlord at a place where he was staying" was attacked and badly beaten "by a man whom he could not identify, who threatened my client's life if he did not desist from what he was doing in relation to Bloody Sunday".
"At about the same time a friend of my client was visited by a man in plain clothes claiming to be a police officer seeking to locate him."
Mr Bindman says his client "felt extremely guilty and responsible for what had happened to his landlord who asked that he be kept out of any further involvement in the matter".
Lawyers for most of the paratroopers have strenuously denied that their clients have made any threats or pose any danger to 027.