Major General: I gave Bloody Sunday arrest orders

The officer commanding the British Army’s operation in Derry on Bloody Sunday today insisted that he gave the order to launch the arrest of stone-throwing hooligans which ultimately led to the deaths of 13 unarmed civilians.

Major General Pat MacLellan, then a Brigadier in command of the 8th Infantry Brigade, told the Saville Inquiry that it was not correct that the order to begin the operation during a civil rights march on January 30, 1972, was given by the Commander of Land Forces, General Robert Ford.