Lord Saville today criticised late moves to introduce new photographic evidence after the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was held up for an hour.
Mr Kevin O'Callaghan, a senior forensic scientist, was due to begin giving evidence to day 230 of the inquiry in Derry's Guildhall at 9.30 a.m.
However, the proceedings were delayed while photographs were taken of the jacket worn by Mr Jim Wray on January 30th, 1972, the day on which he was one of 13 civilian civil rights marchers shot dead by soldiers.
Mr Richard Harvey, counsel for the Wray family, said new photographs had to be taken after the circumstances of Mr Wray's death were last week raised by Mr Peter Clarke QC, counsel for the military witnesses.
The pictures were then taken this morning with Mr O'Callaghan in attendance to ensure they were accurate and helpful to the inquiry, he said.
"The intention was to orientate the jacket so that the holes in it could be lined up in a way in which it is believed the bullets went through the jacket," Mr Harvey said.
Lord Saville said the delay was not the first occasion that the inquiry's time had been taken up in "making preparation, photographing documents, in this case photographing a jacket and so on". He also questioned why the preparations could not have been made earlier.
"I would therefore appeal to all concerned to not treat the hearing hours as hours in which evidence can be prepared or other steps of a like nature taken," he said.
PA