Saville: Para 'had McGuinness in rifle sights'

A former paratrooper who claimed he was prepared to shoot Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness before Bloody Sunday, today admitted recurrent nightmares may have become more real to him than actual events.

Soldier L, who was a private in the Parachute Regiment, told the Saville Inquiry he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The former soldier said he had Mr McGuinness in the sights of his rifle and was waiting for the order to shoot him dead after seeing him throw missiles at troops during earlier street disturbances in Belfast.

The former para, who claimed he wanted to take Mr McGuinness dead or alive on Bloody Sunday, said he saw him engage in a running battle with soldiers some time before the civil rights march in Derry.

Cathryn McGahey, counsel to the inquiry, asked the soldier whether he was sure it was Mr McGuinness he saw in Belfast.

“Positive, I had him in my rifle sights and I was just waiting for the order to shoot him dead,” he replied.

Mr McGuinness, who has already admitted to being second-in-command of the IRA in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday, is scheduled to appear before the inquiry on November 4 and 5.

He is expected to insist the Provisional IRA did not open fire on soldiers on January 30, 1972 when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by paratroopers. A 14th man died later.

Soldier L told the inquiry if he had seen Mr McGuinness in Derry on Bloody Sunday, he “would have had him”.

“My aim was to capture McGuinness and bring him back alive, or alternatively dead, if he had been armed and intending to shoot,” he added.

Soldier L, who said he shot a gunman on Bloody Sunday, also controversially claimed that the former Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly, then a parish priest, concealed two rifles under his cassock.

He insisted he saw this happen, despite no other civilian or military witnesses reporting seeing it.

Soldier L also claimed he saw another paratrooper fire so many shots into a body at point blank range that when he and another soldier lifted it to put it into a body bag, it split in two.

The soldier insisted he was sure the incident occurred, despite the fact that no other civilian or military witnesses have mentioned it.

“Even though the man was down, Soldier H was still firing bullets into him as he stood over him and the body kept on jumping,” he said.

Ms McGahey asked the soldier: “Is it possible having heard various stories, you came over time to believe that you actually witnessed him firing into a body as you describe, but you did not see that?”

“I did, because it is also a fact that I later put that body in a body bag and you do not forget things like that very often,” he replied.

Soldier L also claimed that he saw about three pounds of plastic explosives at the rubble barricade in Rossville Street, where four of the victims were shot dead.

However, no other soldier reported seeing the explosives and they were never recovered or accounted for.

Under questioning from Arthur Harvey, QC, representing most of the families of the bereaved, Soldier L admitted he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, but insisted he stood by his claims.

Mr Harvey asked him if he could have been mistaken about his evidence, or if he had been lying after he fired unjustified shots.

“I have made my statement, I stick by every word of it, I cannot change it. I will not change it. I cannot go back on anything,” he replied.

Soldier L said he had had recurrent nightmares about Bloody Sunday.

Mr Harvey asked him: “Could it be that the nightmares have become more real to you than what happened on the day?” “Oh yes, definitely, yes. I agree with you there,” he replied.

Legal action was started against Soldier L when he failed to turn up to give evidence at Methodist Central Hall in London last month, telling his lawyers he was feeling increasingly fearful.

However, contempt of court proceedings were suspended when it was confirmed he was prepared to co-operate as long as he could give his evidence from behind a screen, shielded from public view.

The inquiry, which usually sits at the Guildhall in Londonderry, is currently hearing the evidence of military witnesses and others in London because of concerns for their safety.

The final hearing day of testimony in London is on October 22 before it resumes at the Guildhall on October 29.

Lord Saville of Newdigate and the Commonwealth judges accompanying him on the Bloody Sunday inquiry began their work nearly four years ago and are not expected to report back until 2004.