A photographer was warned to stay behind a British army barricade on Bloody Sunday by a Paratroopers commander, it was claimed at the Saville Inquiry today.
Mr Sean Canney claimed Col Derek Wilford, Commander of 1 Para, warned him ahead of the entry of British troops into Derry's Bogside on January 30th, 1972, when 13 Catholic civilians were shot dead.
Giving evidence to the inquiry, he said: "As a photo-journalist it was highly unusual to be stopped by an officer of that rank. It was usually a corporal or sergeant that would do that.
"I felt even at the very beginning when I was stopped by Wilford that that in itself was highly unusual."
Mr Canney (51) later described the arrival of troops on the car park of the Rossville Flats and claimed one soldier fired from the hip a single burst of eight or nine shots towards the fleeing crowd.
He later spoke of seeing Mr Bernard McGuigan being killed, giving an account of him being shot in the head as he stepped out waving a white handkerchief towards the dying Mr Patrick Doherty.
He was also certain he witnessed shooting from the city walls overlooking the Bogside, describing a piece of turf 18 inches in front of him "disintegrating" and bits of dirt flying into the air.
"A fraction of a second later I heard the first of about eight single rifle shots," he said.
"Some of these hit the walls at the rear of Joseph Place behind me. I have no doubt that the shots were fired in a north-westerly direction from the city walls because I heard them hit the wall behind me."
PA