No bid to change soldiers' stories, says lawyer

A former British army lawyer today denied pressure was put on Bloody Sunday soldiers to change their evidence about the killings.

Lieutenant Colonel Colin Overbury told the Saville Inquiry sitting in London there was no cover-up launched to help the paratroopers who shot dead 13 unarmed men on a civil rights march in Derry on January 30, 1972.

“If such an allegation is made, it is untrue,” he said in his statement to the inquiry.

“I would remember if any attempt had been made to put such pressure on any of the soldiers at any of the interviews at which I was present. I do not remember this.

“If I had witnessed such pressure, I would have put a stop to it and I would have made a report to my Director.

“The purpose of interviewing the soldiers was to find out the truth.”

Lt Col Overbury was a key member of the British army’s legal team at the Widgery inquiry and later became a senior legal officer at the European Commission. On behalf of the British Ministry of Defence he informed the soldiers they were obliged to make statements and to give evidence to the 1972 Widgery Tribunal which investigated the shootings.

It was on the basis they could not be prosecuted on the evidence they gave to the tribunal. They had been ordered to speak and could not incriminate themselves by simply obeying an order.

Lt Col Overbury, who is being questioned on his statement, admits there were discrepancies between the accounts of the soldiers.

There were also discrepancies between the original statements from some paratroopers and those they gave when being interviewed later in preparation for Widgery.

These inconsistencies were not surprising because the soldiers had been involved in “intense activity” and were under stress, he told the inquiry.

Concern was also raised about the whereabouts of Army photographs of the day’s events and why it appears they were not all handed over to Widgery.

Lt Col Overbury could not recall any problems with the provision of photographs, which had been taken from a variety of locations along the route.

None of them clearly identified a civilian gunman or a nail bomber, he recalled adding: “I believe such photographic material would have registered with me. There were certainly pictures of soldiers and there were some taken form the air and from the ground.”

One of the Bloody Sunday paratroopers claimed that the Treasury Solicitor’s staff “fabricated” the statement in his name to the Widgery inquiry. In a vehement denial of such activity Lt Col Overbury added in his statement: “My recollection of the relations between the Army and the Treasury Solicitor’s staff would not support any suggestion that there was any incentive on their part to suborn military witnesses to commit perjury.”