A man who had a grandstand view of key events on Bloody Sunday has described soldiers laughing and joking after the killings and replacing their helmets with red berets to have their photographs taken.
Mr William Harley, who watched from his top-floor flat in the high-rise Rossville Flats block, says in his statement to the inquiry that he recognised the civilian gunman who is alleged to have fired shots from a handgun in the flats car-park.
Mr Harley was a 36-year-old pipe fitter in the petrochemical industry at the time of Bloody Sunday, January 30th, 1972. He took the witness stand just before the inquiry adjourned yesterday, and he will be cross examined today on his detailed and graphic statement which describes several shootings.
The statement outlines how he saw a civilian gunman in the car-park at the gable end of Chamberlain Street. Mr Harley states: "I knew him from work but I will not name him." This is thought to be the same civilian gunman who was seen in that location by several witnesses, most notably by the then Father Edward Daly, and who has become known in inquiry circles as "Father Daly's gunman" but has not been identified to date.
Mr Harley says this man was black-haired, with a moustache, and wore a black coat and black trousers. He saw the man before an army Saracen armed personnel carrier arrived in the carpark.
The man glanced furtively around the corner of the gable, stepped back and took a revolver from his coat pocket. "With his back to the gable end wall, the man reached out his right hand and bent his wrist around the corner of the wall and fired five or six shots without looking," Mr Harley says.
"From my vantage point in Block 2 of Rossville Flats I watched the five or six shots simply fire into the ground. As far as I can recall, this all happened before I saw any soldiers on foot and before I saw or heard any gunfire from the soldiers. I do not believe that the soldiers were aware of this man or his actions."
Although he qualifies his statement, this is the first witness who describes civilian firing as happening before the soldiers fired. As such, his recollection of the sequence of events does not tally with the evidence given by Bishop Daly and others.
Mr Harley also describes a soldier firing towards two men running away from him in the car-park. He says the soldier was not under any threat whatsoever, and adds: "It was the first shot I heard on that day." (This latter comment conflicts with his evidence on the civilian gunman.)
Mr Harley says at this time he was on the balcony of the flat looking down into the car-park, with two friends and a number of children. The adults lifted the children "and threw them into any open doors we could see, shouting `lie down, lie down' ". He then went to an upstairs bedroom window in his flat, and looking out saw a young man's body lying below in the carpark. "It was the most horrible pathetic sight I have ever seen in my life - almost like dropping a child's rag doll." He saw a young man with his hands in the air walk across the car-park to within 10 yards of an armoured car, and heard him shout: "Are you going to shoot us all? Shoot me you bastards." A soldier raised his rifle and shot the youth in the leg.
On the other side of his flat, he saw another body at street level, and watched a man approach it. Mr Harley says that man was fired on - "I saw the bullets hit the ground to the west of the body. I am certain they came from the City Walls, the top edge of which I could see from the window."
Later, from the bedroom window, he saw a group of soldiers at the end of Chamberlain Street "laughing and joking, taking off their helmets and replacing them with red berets, and then putting their arms round each other in twos and threes and having their photographs taken. They were clearly very proud of what they had done."
Another witness described how she was struck and seriously injured by an armoured car as she tried to flee in the carpark. Ms Alana Burke, who was aged 18, said the long coat she wore that day had become soaked with dye fired from an army water cannon in William Street earlier, and was hampering her movements. "I seemed to be rooted to the spot." Ms Burke broke down in tears as she described how she was taken to hospital in an ambulance which contained bodies covered by blankets, and how she later learned that they were the bodies of Barney McGuigan and Kevin McElhinney.
The witness later said her only child had to be delivered by Caesarean section because of the injury to her pelvis, and she was told she could not have any other children.
Another witness, Mr Joseph McKinney, described seeing a soldier fire a shot above his head as he ran down Chamberlain Street. Mr McKinney, whose brother, Willie, was one of the 13 shot dead that day, described how he took shelter with up to 20 others in a play area in the corner of the carpark.
A soldier with a rifle stepped out and looked at this group for about 10 seconds, but then turned and walked away.
Mr Edmund Lawson QC, representing a number of soldiers, put it to the witness: "You were there trapped in a corner? In effect, it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel, wouldn't it?" Mr McKinney replied: "Yes, we were at his mercy, really, from our point of view."
Counsel: "And he did not shoot?" Witness: "No."
Another witness, Mr John Friel, whose brother, Joseph, was shot and seriously injured, described how he saw a soldier fire towards him in Chamberlain Street. He saw this soldier on TV footage later.
The inquiry continues today.