Senior officer ‘must have known’ civilians were being shot

A SENIOR officer in charge of paratroopers on Bloody Sunday must have been aware innocent civilians were being shot, it was claimed yesterday.

Mike Mansfield QC accused Colonel Ted Loden, a major at the time of Bloody Sunday, of being wrong in claiming he compiled a list of engagements in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday. The lawyer said senior military figures had produced the list to show that soldiers had acted in self defence when shooting dead 13 civilians.

He added its purpose was to give an impression to the public the paras had faced an onslaught when they went into the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972.