Soldier 'finished off unarmed victim', Saville hears

A former Official IRA man told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry today he saw a soldier finish off an unarmed man as he lay on the ground…

A former Official IRA man told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry today he saw a soldier finish off an unarmed man as he lay on the ground.

The man, known to the Inquiry as OIRA7, said the soldier was around 15 feet from Jim Wray in Glenfada Park when he opened fire.

"The soldier who shot Jim Wray did not aim. It was not an aimed shot at a target. It was a killing shot. The target was prone on the ground. There was no real need for him to aim. He could not miss," he said.

Mr Wray was one of 13 unarmed civilians shot dead by paratroopers during a civil rights march in the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972.

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One of the wounded, Mr Joe Mahon, has given evidence to the Inquiry claiming he saw a soldier shooting Mr Wray twice at point-blank range as he lay on the pavement.

Mr Edmund Lawson QC, who represents some of the soldiers, asked if he had ever spoken to Mr Mahon about the killing of Mr Wray.

"You are presumably aware that with few exceptions, evidence would suggest that Mr Wray was likely shot from some distance away, a notable exception being your friend Joe Mahon."

The witness denied that he had spoken to Mr Mahon about the shooting: "Firstly you are calling Joe Mahon my friend. Secondly you are going on the assumption I have spoken to Mr Mahon about this incident."

Questioned by counsel to the Inquiry Mr Christopher Clarke QC, OIRA7 said he clearly recalled the incident.

But he conceded that when he spoke to the Inquiry's solicitors earlier this year it was the first statement he had made about the killing of Mr Wray.

"I may have made references to it over the years but it is the first time I made a statement."

OIRA7, giving evidence at the Guildhall in Derry, said he did not carry a weapon on Bloody Sunday but helped to put a rifle in the boot of a car after a colleague had fired a single shot at a soldier.

The 50-year-old former paramilitary said he heard a high velocity shot being fired close to him in Columbcille Court after hearing that two men, Damien Donaghy and John Johnston had been wounded by the British army.

After he heard the single shot, he went to the flats at Columbcille Court where he saw two colleagues, one carrying a rifle.

His testimony corroborated evidence given earlier this week by a gunman, OIRA1, who rejected suggestions that he fired before Mr Donaghy and Mr Johnston were wounded.

OIRA7 said he helped OIRA1 and his colleague OIRA2 to conceal the rifle in a coat and put it in the back of a vehicle.

He was asked by Mr Clarke about a report from a journalist at the time that there were other arms stored in the car - two rifles, a sten gun, a carbine and a .22 automatic.

"I would emphatically deny that they were in the car," he said.

OIRA7 told the Inquiry that he was in Glenfada Park when he saw the Parachute Regiment's armoured cars entering the Bogside.

"There was a lot of noise, a lot of people shouting and people running. I saw an armoured car stop where I had been standing earlier near Kells Walk and the doors of the vehicle opened."

It was then he heard the first live round being fired.

"The shots went up Rossville Street and I did not feel they were aimed at me. I think that we were carried along by the adrenaline and the fear and wanting to get away."

He told the Inquiry that the crowd, who went into the enclosed courtyard of Glenfada Park North, believed they were safe from the line of fire.

"I have a memory at some point when I was in the square catching my breath that there was a crack of bullets and I remember someone saying `somebody else has been shot'."

"I recall seeing the body of the boy I now know to be Michael Kelly being carried through Glenfada Park North from the south eastern exit towards the south western exit."

He then recalled seeing a number of soldiers aiming their weapons: "One aimed a deliberate and aimed shot in my direction. He was standing. I cannot say what he looked like."

OIRA7 added he helped carry Mr Mahon into a house in Abbey Park.

"I remember saying to the people in the house that I knew him and what his name was. I then went back towards Glenfada Park.

"I also recall someone trying to figure out where he was shot and taking his coat off him so the first aid people could see. He had been shot in the stomach and there was an awful lot of blood."