Former aide denies destroying notes proving massacre

THE personal assistant to the British Army’s most senior frontline officer on Bloody Sunday yesterday denied destroying his notes of the event because he had witnessed a massacre.

The soldier, a sergeant identified only as INQ 1832, kept the notes for 27 years before destroying them as he prepared to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

In January 1972 he was personal assistant to General Sir Robert Ford, the Commander of Land Forces in charge of the Army's day-to-day operations, he told the inquiry sitting in central London.