If nail-bombs were "planted" on 17-year-old Gerald Donaghey, it would raise a whole series of questions and imply a degree of advance planning, the inquiry was told yesterday.
On the other hand, if the bombs were on him from the time he was shot, it would mean that he was carrying the equivalent of four bags of sugar in the pockets of his jacket and jeans, and that they were not noticed by several witnesses who examined him, including two medical practitioners.
Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the tribunal, said it seemed difficult to understand how, if there were bombs on the youth, none of those who carried him, examined him and drove him towards hospital ever noticed them. "And you would think, had they noticed them, they would have removed them."
Mr Clarke read to the inquiry extracts from the statement of four military witnesses not previously heard, none of whose accounts fits in with each other.
Capt Rupert Conder, who was the PRO of the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, describes seeing a car drive up at speed to the army roadblock at the Craigavon Bridge. It "slammed on the brakes" and the driver ran away.
Being the closest person to the car, the witness says, he ran over to carry out a quick inspection.
He saw a man slumped in the back seat and what appeared to be a nail-bomb in his right jacket pocket, and what appeared to be another one in the left-hand pocket. Counsel said that this account suggested that Capt Conder was the first to see the nail-bomb at the army post.
Soldier 528, a corporal in the Support Company of the same battalion, says he was instructed to search a car. He opened the boot and saw the body of a young male.
"I could see nail-bombs protruding from both breast pockets of his combat jacket and from each of the lower pockets of the jacket," he says. Another nailbomb stuck out of a jeans pocket, making five in all, he adds.
Soldier 1345, a corporal in HQ Company of the battalion, said a car came into the post, one of his "mates" opened the back door, and a body "more or less fell out. As it fell, a nail-bomb fell out of the jacket pocket."
The witness says he recognised the object immediately. "As soon as we saw it we all scattered like hell," he says. Counsel pointed out that this account was also inconsistent with that of the previous witness.
Soldier 1276, a sergeant with the 22nd Light Air Defence Regiment, remembers "an army vehicle", either a Land-Rover or a Pig, driving into the army compound. Four soldiers jumped out and then lifted a body from the vehicle.
The witness noticed that the dead man had one nail-bomb poking out of each of the two back pockets of his jeans.
Counsel pointed out that several civilian witnesses who carried the injured youth to shelter said they had noticed nothing, although one had searched Mr Donaghey's top pockets for identification. Mr Raymond Rogan, into whose house he was taken, had also found nothing, and Mr Rogan's wife and Dr Kevin Swords had also searched his pockets.
Counsel said that if the nailbombs were "planted", it would presumably have to have been done either by some unknown soldier or soldiers in, it would appear, the Royal Anglian Regiment, or by RUC personnel, or by both. There were difficulties on either account.
If it was done by the army it would have to have been done, it would seem, either with the connivance of or at risk to the Regimental Medical Officer, or after both medical examinations.
"Why the Royal Anglians should want to do that, and where they might get, not one, but four nail-bombs from, remains to be explained," said Mr Clarke.
If it was done by the RUC it would have to be done on premises, namely the Regimental Aid Post of the Royal Anglians, where they were either guests or were in close proximity to a substantial number of soldiers.
"Any plant theory must also postulate either a degree of alacrity of conception and implementation, or a degree of advanced planning, including the procurement of four nail-bombs, one of which may have been of an unusual type, which seems hard to credit," counsel added.