A witness yesterday denied telling a journalist that he saw a gunman fire from Rossville Flats.
Mr Billy Gillespie said he had been involved in rioting from the time the Troubles started in 1969. "In fact, I lost about five years of my life rioting," he said. "I hated the police . . . we were more concerned about taking on the police than the Brits because we always thought the Brits would be going again . . ." He said he eventually "grew out of rioting, when I realised it was not the person I hated but the uniform and what it represented. I realised that there was a person under the uniform and they may be all right."
The witness said he and about a dozen other young men threw stones as soldiers entered the flats car-park. He was near a man he knew to see, Michael Bridge, who had half a brick in his hand.
A soldier came into view at the corner of the flats. "Mickey started shouting at the soldier, something like `shoot me you, b . . . . . .'. He then threw the brick. Suddenly there was a bang, he was hit in the leg and a fountain of blood started spurting from his leg."
Mr Brian Kennedy, counsel for Mr Michael Bridge, put it to him that he was mistaken about Mr Bridge throwing stones or bricks, but the witness said he was not mistaken. He said that shortly after this he was sheltering behind a low wall in the car-park. There was a lot of shooting. A man called Patsy McDaid got up from behind the wall and ran towards a gap between the blocks of flats. He had not moved far when he was shot in the back.
Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the tribunal, asked the witness about a document retrieved from the Sunday Times archives which appeared to contain notes purporting to be information given to a journalist by a "Billy Gillespie".
One entry stated: "NB he also claims that he saw a gunman on the fifth floor of flats with an M1 carbine." In reply to questions from Mr Clarke, the witness said he did not see a gunman with a carbine or any form of gun, and he had not told a journalist that he saw a gunman in the flats.
Mr Gillespie said he heard there had been a man with a short (handgun) at Free Derry corner who fired two or three shots but this was just hearsay. Another witness, Mr Thomas Wilson, an ex-serviceman, said he noticed that one of three or four men standing against the gable-end of Chamberlain Street had something in his hands "which I believed at the time was a pistol". However, he could not swear it was a pistol and he did not see it fired. The other men hustled this man away.
The inquiry continues today.