Officer denies paras were sent to 'administer violence'

A former lieutenant in the Parachute Regiment today rejected a suggestion paratroopers were sent to Derry on Bloody Sunday “simply to administer violence”.

Barry MacDonald QC, a lawyer acting for the families of many of those killed and injured on January 30, 1972, put it to Soldier 026 that British paratroopers were sent from Belfast to “sort out the situation in Derry”.