'John Wayne' para saved me, says Bloody Sunday witness

A "macho" Paratrooper saved a youth from death at the hands of a colleague on Bloody Sunday, the Saville Inquiry heard today.

William John Dillon claimed another member of the regiment was set to shoot him as he ran across waste ground in Derry’s Bogside when a big soldier appeared and collared him.

"I am convinced that if he had not grabbed me, then the other soldier with the rifle would have shot me. I think this big soldier saved my life," he told the hearing in the Guildhall, Derry.

Mr Dillon was 15 on Bloody Sunday and admitted having thrown stones at troops behind a barricade earlier that afternoon.

The soldier who arrested him had run onto waste ground without his helmet "clearly not worried about being shot", he said.

"However, he impressed me as being a macho man. He reminded me of John Wayne."

Mr Dillon said the trooper "grabbed me by the scruff of my jacket collar, nearly lifting me off the ground" and ran him over to a point where other detainees were being lined up.

"He was such a strong man that he was able to lift me easily. As he ran with me, my feet were hardly touching the ground. It was like floating. He kept yelling at me, 'Run, you bastard'.

"I think he was also hitting me on the back with his baton as he ran me across. He never let go of me once until he threw me at some soldiers."

Mr Dillon claimed he was transported to Fort George barracks in the city in a truck along with other detainees, including one woman, Winnie O’Brien who was "continually cursing and slagging off the soldiers".

"Every time she slagged them, they kicked or hit me and not her. At one point, I remember telling her shut up so they would stop hitting me."