Scrapped photos of 'low value'

Thirteen civilians were killed on Bloody Sunday

There is nothing suspicious about the disappearance of 1,000 Army photographs taken on Bloody Sunday, a senior military historian has said.

John Harding, deputy head of the Ministry of Defence's Army Historical Branch responsible for co-ordinating MoD searches for the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, believes they may have had little historical value.

No officials have hindered his efforts to locate documents, he told the Saville inquiry sitting in central London.

The tribunal is investigating what happened on 30 January 1972 when paratroops opened fire on civilians at a civil rights march in the Bogside in Londonderry killing 13 civilians. Another man died later.

"Nothing has been suppressed and no documents have been illicitly removed from files before he had a chance to inspect it," he added. Photographs had been considered to have "low grade of value" and many were destroyed, he explained.

Lord Saville is investigating what happened on Bloody Sunday

Mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of 1,000 Army photographs taken on Bloody Sunday.

They were shot at different locations by photographers from about seven different regiments.

It is unclear if they were different photographs or copies of the same images.

Soldiers recalled seeing photographers at Rossville Street, on top of the Embassy building, and one of the paras said he was with a photographer when they debussed in Rossville Street, the inquiry has been told.

Barry MacDonald QC, representing many of the bereaved and injured, suggested that photographs may have been filed, used for intelligence purposes and become classified documents.

Mr Harding replied that this was "not necessarily" the case and that he had not been hindered in locating information by the MoD.

Mr MacDonald asked: "Do you not think it is highly suspicious, to say the least, that when 10 photographers were taking hundreds of photographs from seven different regiments, that not one of those photographs survives?"

Photographs

Mr Harding replied: "All I can say is that I have been unable to trace these photographs and can find no audit trail to track them down from 1972 to today."

He did not feel that the lack of a trail, including cataloguing of the images, was suspicious because photographs have had a "low grade of value" over the years.

The tribunal is currently sitting in London to hear evidence from military witnesses.

The Saville Inquiry was set up by Prime Minister Tony Blair to reinvestigate the evidence because the relatives felt the first inquiry was a whitewash.

Lord Saville and the Commonwealth judges who comprise the inquiry, are not expected to report back until 2004.

The inquiry, which usually sits at the Guildhall in Derry, is currently hearing the evidence from military witnesses in London because of concerns for their safety.