News veteran tells Bloody Sunday inquiry of press officer's warning

An Army press officer warned journalists troops would be "going in hard" the day before a civil rights march in Londonderry turned into Bloody Sunday, a veteran news photographer has claimed.

Larry Doherty told the Saville inquiry photographers at a hotel were advised to keep behind the Army the night before the demonstration 29 years ago, which ended with 13 men shot dead.

Mr Doherty, who worked for the Derry Journal for 50 years and is now retired, said the hotel was "packed" and spoke of the air of expectation about the march, which was banned from going beyond the Catholic Bogside district into the city centre.

The press officer, whose name was deleted from his statement, was "quite well-known".

Mr Doherty said: "I remember him saying we should all go in behind the Army rather than take pictures from the other side because the Army 'is going in hard'.

"At the time I did not attach any significance to this. I interpreted this as meaning that the snatch squads would be going in and arresting people and that there might be some baton rounds.

"It was only afterwards that I attached significance to those words and came to the view that there must have been some element of planning to what happened that day."

The next day, before the march, Mr Doherty claimed soldiers on Shipquay Street in the city centre prevented him from photographing them spreadeagling about half a dozen youths against a wall.

He said: "A soldier to my left turned around and pointed his rifle at me. He was only feet away from me. His gun was right up to my face.

"He was very aggressive and I was very scared. I was looking down the barrel of the gun and his finger was on the trigger. I dropped my camera to my chest and slunk back among the people on the other side of road."