Ex-special branch man testifies from behind screen

A police officer was today giving evidence at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry from behind screens.

Heavy security surrounded the Guildhall in Derry for the live testimony of William George Hunter, who claimed to have heard nail bombs exploding and a Thompson sub-machine gun ring out as he stood on the fringe of the city’s Bogside on January 30 1972.

He was the first member of the RUC - now known as the Police Service of Northern Ireland - to enter the witness box at the multi-million pound hearings, which are re-examining the killings of 13 Catholic men and youths on the day that paratroopers moved in after a civil rights demonstration.

The inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, has been going on for four years, and has been taking civilian witness evidence since December 2000.

Today marked the beginning of a new phase: The accounts of the RUC officers who played a background role in the events of Bloody Sunday.

It is expected to take about two weeks to take their evidence.

Mr Hunter, a former Special Branch officer, was granted the right to testify from behind a screen when the tribunal ruled nearly two years ago that he faced a ‘‘special danger’’ which overrode the public duty to conduct an open inquiry.

The screens hid his face from the public and relatives of the dead and injured, but not the lawyers and tribunal. Other police officers will give evidence unscreened.