A man who claimed to have witnessed shooting from the historic walls of Derry on Bloody Sunday was today accused of "putting a gloss" on his evidence to exaggerate the wickedness of what he saw.
But Mr Daniel McGuinness rejected the suggestion put by Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, acting for most of the soldiers at the inquiry into the shooting dead of 13 Catholic civilians in the city 29 years ago.
Mr McGuinness claimed in evidence to have been with the crowd at Free Derry Corner - further south of the main spheres of action - when a "furious outburst of gunfire" from behind made them drop to the ground.
He said he remained standing as another two bullets passed - one again from the north, the other from the east, prompting him to look towards the walls to see where the second shot came from.
Mr McGuinness said he saw two men in a gap in the battlements; one wearing an RUC constable's uniform and in front of him a man apparently wearing a military uniform crouched forward on the edge of the gap.
In his statement he said: "I immediately attributed the shot passing over my head from that direction to having been fired by one of these two people or by someone else near them."
From the witness box he said he believed the soldier had a rifle at the time of the shooting but afterwards doubted whether his eyesight was good enough to see that detail from such a great distance.
However he admitted never having claimed to have seen any weapon on the walls in previous statements.
Mr Glasgow said: "That is another example of your anxiety to exaggerate, where possible, things that you did not, in fact, see?"
Mr McGuinness replied: "I do not think so.
PA