Photographer 'feared for his life'

The witness took the famous picture of Fr Edward Daly

An Italian photo-journalist has told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that he believes soldiers fired shots at him on three different occasions.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday, Fulvio Grimaldi said shots were fired in his direction at the corner of Chamberlain Street in Londonderry when he shouted at soldiers to stop shooting.

He also said there was an attempt on his life as he tried to get out of the Rossville Flats area and that shots were fired into a flat as he tried to take pictures from it.

Mr Grimaldi also said he saw Barney McGuigan being shot dead as he walked towards the body of Patrick Doherty.

No-go area

Thirteen Catholic men were shot dead on 30 January 1972 when Paratroopers opened fire in the Bogside in the wake of a civil rights demonstration.

My relationship with the RUC and Army was not good

Fulvio Grimaldi

Another man died later from his injuries.

Mr Grimaldi said he was told to stay in a house in Derry's Bogside area by "some boys in charge of the no-go area" until the early hours after the shootings.

He was then driven across the border to Dublin where he filed his first radio report.

Mr Grimaldi took the photographs of Father Edward Daly - who subsequently became Bishop of Derry - waving a blood-stained handkerchief as a white flag.

Curate

The world famous picture showed the then curate attempting to take a dying teenager to safety from the car park of the Rossville Flats.

The photo-journalist also took the picture of Barney McGuigan lying face up in a pool of blood on the other side of the complex.

Mr Grimaldi described horrifying scenes during heavy Army gunfire, including seeing Mr McGuigan shot in the head as he attempted to go to the aid of the dying Patrick Doherty.

"His head jerked back, his face whipped round to the left, his body spun around and he collapsed," he said.

That evening he and his girlfriend and assistant, Susan North - who was taping the sounds of the day - stopped in a house in the Bogside.

There he was told that "over the Army radio soldiers had been told to apprehend an Italian photographer and his colleague or wife, who were moving in the Bogside".

Journalists

"They were to use any means necessary," he said.

"It made me very concerned about my materials and recordings. There were very few journalists who were in the know.

"My relationship with the RUC and Army was not good. The RUC would often swear at me in the street and so on.

Lord Saville: Heading the inquiry

"They thought I was too friendly with the Catholic community.

"After I had sent the things that I had seen and after hearing evidence that I was to be apprehended, I wanted to get my material out of the area."

He said he did not know who took him across the border.

"I did not ask names but I thought they were from the Republic," he said.

The witness also said he saw a soldier placing his foot on a youth who had fallen ton waste ground off Rossville Street, and apparently shooting him in the back.

That scene has not been described by any other witness.

Later, he confirmed attending marches elsewhere and was shown a statement by a civil rights activist recalling a demonstration in Pomeroy in County Tyrone and "an Italian man who was trying to instigate anarchy amongst the hooligan element".

The statement of Seamus Rodgers was read out by Queen's Counsel Edwin Glasgow, who is acting for most of the soldiers.

The statement added: "I did not know where he came from. He was not a paramilitary. I regarded him as a bit of a head-case."

Asked if the statement referred to him, Mr Grimaldi replied: "It might have referred to me, I was not very much liked by these kind of men and that makes me pretty proud."

The Bloody Sunday inquiry, headed by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 and is expected to run for another two years.