Saville Inquiry told of 'row' between paras and soldiers

Claims that Paratroopers had a major row with soldiers in another regiment in Derry over what they did on Bloody Sunday surfaced today at the new inquiry into the killings.

Witness Mr Maurice McColgan also described having to run a gauntlet of Paras, being threatened and throttled during a terrifying ordeal in military custody that evening 29 years ago.

Everybody had to pass between these lines of paratroopers. Each of the Paratroopers was armed with a baton. The Paras beat the men as they ran between them. Witness Mr Maurice McColgan described being threatened while in military custody

Mr McColgan said he was told that the row amongst troops flared with the regular soldiers furious they were being left to deal with the aftermath of the day while the Paras would be sent elsewhere immediately.

Giving evidence, he alleged details of the altercation came from an RUC man at the gate of Fort George Army base in the city as he was being released that night.

Mr McColgan said he was wrongly arrested for rioting and described how a lorryload of detainees was ordered out at the barracks to be met by about 50 Paratroopers standing in two lines.

He said: "Everybody had to pass between these lines of paratroopers. Each of the Paratroopers was armed with a baton. The Paras beat the men as they ran between them."

Among the prisoners was Mr Eamon McAteer, son of the then Nationalist Storomont MP, Mr Eddie McAteer, who stumbled in front of Mr McColgan at one point as they were all driven forward, their arms and hands receiving the blows as they used them to cover their heads and necks.

Inside the detainees' compound, the men were placed in cages and ordered to stand holding the barbed wire bounding the units while RUC officers started processing the charges, he said.

He claimed one soldier tried to grip Mr McColgan's hands tighter on to the wire but was ordered away by an RUC man.

Later he was told to drink tea which another soldier's Alsatian had been lapping from and when he refused, he was taken to the bathroom and attacked, he said.

"When I went into the toilets I felt this blow on the back of my head and I turned round to see the soldier coming at me with his baton raised," he told the chamber in the Guildhall.

Mr McColgan said he was pushed up against a wall and throttled with a baton.

"An RUC officer caught my eye going past and came in and grappled with the soldier, throwing him on to the floor," he told the inquiry.