Paratrooper 'heard shots fired at platoon'

A paratrooper today recalled being ordered to take cover when he heard shots aimed towards his platoon before the main shootings on Bloody Sunday.

The unnamed paratrooper, identified only as Private 1917, was in 1 Para’s support company machine gun platoon.

He had only been in the derelict building on the edge of the Bogside at William Street for a few seconds when he heard up to five shots. He believed he was on the first or second floor.

Private 1917 did not see who fired and could not say whether it was a gun or a baton gun he had heard.

He told the inquiry: “The message came for us to take cover and I presumed that we were under fire, and that is what I did.”

He hid behind a wall but through a restricted view out of a window he could see marchers, mostly male and in their 20s, running in various directions and throwing stones – some of which were in his platoon’s direction.

He then remembered two or three shots being fired from within the building, probably from two soldiers who were on a lower level than himself.

Private 1917 told the inquiry he could not remember hearing any orders to shoot. The only other order he recalls was the one to pull out.

He recalls that one of the soldiers who opened fire, identified as Corporal A, later claimed he had shot a nail bomber.

Private 1917, who had only been in the paras for four weeks, also said he heard noises while he was at the derelict building which, his later experience confirmed, were nail bombs.

Arthur Harvey QC, representing many of the bereaved families and the injured, suggested that Private 1917 may have been mistaken in the sounds that he heard.

Mr Harvey said his inexperience combined with possible distortions from the derelict building could have led him to wrongly think that noises he heard before the paras opened fire were live rounds.

Private 1917 replied: “All I can say Sir is what I have said. I heard the sound of shots being fired.”

The hearing was adjourned until Monday.