A former Liverpool councillor was chased out of Derry after he concluded that the Official IRA fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday, it was claimed today.
Mr Paul Mahon said he received threats from paramilitaries after a document, which he had worked on, stated the Army returned fire in response to a shot from the Bogside.
Mr Mahon carried out research on behalf of Brendan Kearney, Kelly and Co, (BKK) a firm of solicitors representing two of the wounded and had assisted in a report submitted to the Saville Inquiry in December 1999.
He told the Inquiry said that after details of the document appeared in a Belfast newspaper in January 2000 he was informed by Mr Brendan Kearney that threats had been made against him.
Mr Mahon said he believed the person who made the threat was 'Red Mickey' Doherty, who was wounded in the Barrack Street area of Derry after the Bloody Sunday shootings.
Mr Doherty, a well known Official IRA member in the city, died last year.
Mr Mahon said in his statement to the Inquiry that his sources had identified the gunman who had fired the shot at the Army as a former paramilitary known as OIRA1.
OIRA1, who gave evidence to the Inquiry late last year, confirmed he fired a single shot from a flat in Columbcille Court, but this was after soldiers had already wounded two people, Mr Damien Donaghy and Mr John Johnston.
Mr Mahon also alleged he was told of another threat - this time from the Provisional IRA - by Mr Liam Wray, whose brother Jim was shot dead on Bloody Sunday.
"I was in a pub in Donegal with my younger son. Liam Wray turned up with his wife. He was clearly looking for me," he said.
He alleged Mr Wray told him that former Provos were concerned they would be blamed for giving him information.
"They had told me about the OIRA1 incident on Bloody Sunday. Liam Wray indicated that there was a direct threat to me from the PIRA."
Mr Wray has submitted a statement to the Inquiry in which he denies telling Mr Mahon about any threat.
The Inquiry, which is in its final stages of taking evidence, is investigating the events of January 30, 1972 when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment.
Mr Mahon, a member of a prominent political family in Merseyside, said he became interested in Bloody Sunday when studying for a degree in contemporary political studies in the mid 1990's.
At the time of Bloody Sunday, he had joined the Liberal Party in Liverpool and was elected to the city council in 1973. In 1974 and 1979 he stood as the Liberal candidate for Parliament for Liverpool Kirkdale.
He told the Inquiry that he chose Bloody Sunday as the subject of his dissertation and began conducting interviews with civilians and later members of the Provisional IRA.
PA