A Bloody Sunday paratrooper today claimed that his colleagues fired without justification.
The former para, identified only as Soldier 027, said just two soldiers - identified as Lance Corporal F and Soldier G - were probably responsible for eight or 10 of the deaths of the 13 unarmed men killed on January 30th, 1972 on a civil rights march in Derry.
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The witness, in his statement to the Saville Inquiry, sitting in London, recalled that one colleague from 1 Para was "exuberant" as a terrifying display of firepower was unleashed against civilians.
Soldier 027's eyewitness account of the bloodshed in the Bogside is hotly contested. Dozens of other soldiers are expected to say they fired within rules of engagement and only at threatening targets.
Soldier 027 was giving his live evidence today behind a screen, just yards away from bereaved relatives who believe their loved ones were killed without proper reason. Several of the 14 injured in the shootings also attended.
The ex-para is in a special protection scheme, paid for by the Northern Ireland Office, to ensure he co-operates with the inquiry. It is believed Soldier 027 fears retribution from his former colleagues.
In his statement to the inquiry, Soldier 027 claimed Lance Corporal F began firing "without pause or hesitation" at the centre of the crowd at the rubble barricade in Rossville Street, where six people were killed.
There were "shocked and terrified" people who were shot at while they fled Glendfada Park North and others froze in fear. Four people died in the Glenfada Park area.
Soldier 027 said he stood amid the carnage and never fired a single shot because he could not identify a gunman or a nail-bomber. In total, 108 bullets were fired on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier 027 recalled being positioned at a wall in Kells Walk, Rossville Street, with his fellow soldiers and scanning the crowd for a target with his rifle at his shoulder.
He recalled one soldier, probably a corporal from Guinness Force, running up beside him and pushing between two soldiers who were firing so that he could begin firing himself.
"He indicated to me that he thought what was happening was great. He was exuberant," Soldier 027 said in his statement.
"I looked through my sights, scanning across the crowd. I was as keen to find a target as anyone, but I just could not identify a target that appeared to justify engaging. I did not see anyone with a weapon or see or hear an explosive device."
The paras, believing they could be attacked by IRA gunmen, were psyched up for battle, according to Soldier 027.
A briefing held the Saturday evening had left the soldiers remarking how they could be "getting kills" the following day, he said. The paras in his section had passed around dumdum bullets as they waited in the armoured vehicles ready to go into the Bogside, he said.
"Unspeakable acts took place on Bloody Sunday," he said in his inquiry statement. "There was no justification for a single shot I saw fired. The only threat was a large assembly of people and we were all experienced soldiers who had been through riot situations before."
Before the paras went in to the Bogside, 027 said he recalled seeing a puff of dust in the ground in front of him as they moved through a churchyard. It was only later that he realised this may have been a bullet hitting the ground. The paras could hear rioters at that time.
He claims that his statements to the Widgery Inquiry, the original investigation into Bloody Sunday, were fabricated to justify the shootings. Like the record of his statement to the Royal Military Police, taken immediately after Bloody Sunday, it contained facts that had been "altered and added" to back up the official line.
