Prosecutors were today urged to consider bringing charges against soldiers accused of lying to Lord Saville’s inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings.
Thirteen people were killed when members of 1 Para opened fire on a civil rights march in Derry on January 30th, 1972. A 14th man died later of his injuries.
Michael Mansfield QC, who represented the families of some of the victims, said the matter was so serious that the authorities should consider bringing charges of perjury.
In his report, published yesterday, Lord Saville concluded that some members of the Parachute Regiment "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify opening fire on unarmed protesters.
Mr Mansfield said that while witnesses to the inquiry were given immunity from prosecution if they incriminated themselves in evidence, that did not cover false testimony.
"I do think, given the strength and clarity of the conclusions, where invented stories or falsehoods were told, that the Director of Public Prosecutions, either here in Northern Ireland or in London, should consider whether it is so
serious - because the rule of law has been flagrantly breached on this occasion by a number of soldiers on a number of UK citizens - that consideration should be given to a prosecution," Mr Mansfield told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
In his report, Lord Saville said they had been victims of "unjustifiable firing" by the Paras.
He said that contrary to evidence given to the inquiry by British soldiers, none of the soldiers had fired on civilians in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers.
"No one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at the soldiers on Bloody Sunday. There was some firing by republican paramilitaries (though nothing approaching that claimed by some soldiers) . . . but in our view none of this firing provided any justification for the shooting of the civilian casualties," the report says.
He also ruled that apart from the firing by one soldier, Private T, there was no question of the gunfire which came from the soldiers being accidental or causing accidental casualties.
The inquiry found that of the 13 civilians killed on Bloody Sunday, only one – Jackie Duddy – was shot by a soldier who who had possibly fired "in a state of fear or panic".
It found that 10 of the civilians had been shot by soldiers who had "not fired in fear or panic", and that in the cases of the two others who were fatally wounded, it was "unlikely" that the soldiers who shot them were doing so out of fear or panic.
The report also said all the soldiers who were responsible for the casualties, apart from Pte T, had insisted they had shot at gunmen or bombers, "which they had not", and, "with the possible exception of Lance Cpl F's belated admission with regard to Michael Kelly, did not accept that they had shot the known casualties, which they had. "To our minds it inevitably followed that this materially undermined the credibility of the accounts given by the soldiers who fired."
No soldier of Support Company, the one responsible for all the gunfire casualties, was injured by gunfire on Bloody Sunday, the report added.
In relation to the behaviour of specific soldiers whose shots killed and injured people on Bloody Sunday – all of whom are not named – the report blames Lance Cpl F for causing more death and injury than any other individual soldier.
The report says the inquiry is sure that Lance Cpl F fired at and shot Bernard McGuigan and Patrick Doherty, and it was highly probably he was also responsible for shooting Patrick Campbell and Daniel McGowan.