Officer testifies to hearing IRA gunfire

Fourteen civilians died after Bloody Sunday shootings

A retired police constable has told the Bloody Sunday inquiry that he heard machinegun fire from a weapon of the type used by the IRA, before the Army opened fire.

James Penney gave his evidence to the tribunal on Thursday.

The Saville Inquiry, sitting in Londonderry, is examining the events of 30 January 1972 when 13 civilians were shot dead by British army soldiers during a civil rights march in the city.

A 14th person died later.

My first thought was that a police vehicle or an Army vehicle had been ambushed

James Penney

Mr Penney testified in full view of the public gallery, unlike the majority of police witnesses who have been allowed to give their evidence from behind screens.

He said he could no longer recall having heard three nail bombs exploding, which he had claimed in a statement made in February 1972.

"They may not necessarily have been nail bombs," he said.

Mr Penney said that the only thing he could be certain of was hearing the sound of Thompson sub-machinegun fire followed by high velocity fire.

"My first thought was that a police vehicle or an Army vehicle had been ambushed, as the TSMG was a weapon that would have been used by the IRA at the time."

Retaliation

Mr Penney, said the Thompson had a distinctive sound "like a slow stutter".

"On the day the weapon fired two or three slow bursts of gunfire over a short space of time. I recognised the sound as coming from a TSMG."

Mr Penney added that he thought the high velocity fire was in retaliation to the initial gunfire.

"I assumed that the Army was firing this, as this was the sound produced by the kind of rifles that the Army tended to use."

Under questioning, he accepted that all police radio transmissions on the day had been recorded and that no-one else had reported hearing either nail bombs exploding or Thompson sub-machinegun fire.

Lord Saville is heading inquiry into Bloody Sunday

However, he refused to say he had been wrong about the machinegun fire.

"I heard it at the time," he said.

Lord Saville of Newdigate and the commonwealth judges accompanying him on the Bloody Sunday inquiry began their work nearly four years ago.

They are not expected to report back until 2004.

The Bloody Sunday inquiry was established in 1998 by Prime Minister Tony Blair after a campaign by families of those killed and injured.

They felt that the Widgery Inquiry, held shortly after the shootings, did not find out the truth about what happened on Bloody Sunday.