Disturbances alleged to have prompted troops to enter Derry's Bogside on Bloody Sunday were "engineered" by the Army, a civil rights leader claimed today.
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Mr Kevin McCorry said efforts by civilian stewards to contain the trouble which flared on Bloody Sunday were succeeding but were "sabotaged" when troops turned water cannon on the crowd.
Mr McCorry, who acted as chief steward that day, January 30th 1972, also told the Saville Inquiry he felt no guilt or responsibility for the killings of 13 of the marchers after paratroopers moved in and opened fire.
"That rests with the Army. We didn't fire the bullets and did not engineer a confrontation with anyone," he stated.
The Army has always maintained soldiers were sent into the Bogside after the march to arrest men and youths who had been rioting at the barrier on William Street, blocking the parade from its intended destination of the city centre.
The original Widgery hearing in 1972 concluded there would have been no deaths that day if those who organised the illegal march had not created a "highly dangerous" situation in which clashes were "almost inevitable".
PA