Hidden casualties are 'rubbish'

Lawyer for soldiers alleged there were hidden casualties

A Catholic priest has told the Bloody Sunday inquiry that claims of hidden casualties who were buried in secret, were "utter rubbish".

Father George McLaughlin told the Saville Inquiry that the scenario would be impossible.

The inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 to investigate the shootings which resulted in 14 deaths and has been sitting since March this year.

Last week, the legal team acting for more than 400 of the soldiers in Londonderry on 30 January 1972, suggested that 34 unknown casualties not fitting the descriptions of the identified dead and injured were sighted, and may have included people engaged in terrorist activity.

'Secret burials'

Michael Topsolki, acting for the next-of-kin of Patrick Doherty, asked Father McLaughlin: "A proposition has been advanced that a number of bodies were, or may have been, removed, buried in secret and that secret has remained intact for nearly 30 years. Is that possible in your view?"

"It is totally impossible," said Fr McLaughlin, who was a curate in St Mary's parish in the city's Creggan estate in 1972.

"The suggestion is utter rubbish. The people in this city have great regard for their dead and for burying the dead.

"There is no way the families would have tolerated a member being shepherded away and buried without the families' knowledge or without the participation of the Church."