Witness denies making mistake

Thirteen people died in Bloody Sunday shootings

A Londonderry man has denied he was mistaken about his claim to have seen one of the oldest victims of Bloody Sunday shot in 1972.

Alphonsus Cunningham was challenged at the Saville Inquiry about his account of Alexander Nash being shot and injured on the rubble barricade across Londonderry's Rossville Street.

The Saville inquiry is investigating the events of 30 January 1972 when paratroopers opened fired on civil rights marchers in the city killing 13 men. Another man died later.

The inquiry has already heard that three of the 13 people shot dead in 1972 - Michael McDaid, John Young and William Nash - were killed on the barricade and that Mr Nash senior, the father of William, was wounded trying to rescue his son.

Mr Cunningham, then aged 30, said that moments before he saw a soldier shoot the older man, he saw the same man fire a single shot towards the barricade and then saw a young man, who been lifting some rubble to throw at troops "crumple face-down".

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The account of the younger man falling on the barricade was contained in accounts Mr Cunningham provided to civil rights activists in 1972 - but there was no mention of the shooting of the older man.

Questioned by Alan Roxburgh, junior counsel to the inquiry, Mr Cunningham could not explain the discrepancy, but denied that his memory of events could be wrong.

He confirmed that he was aware of the shootings of the Nashes.

Mr Roxburgh asked: "Do you think it is possible that what you in fact saw was just a group of men going out to someone who had been injured at the barricade and one of them waving his arm in the air and that you subsequently heard what had happened to Mr Nash and made the connection between the two?"

Mr Cunningham replied: "No."

Mr Roxburgh said: "Do you not think that, having made that connection you might, perfectly honestly and perfectly innocently have convinced yourself that you saw an older man shot when you did not?"

Mr Cunningham said: "No."

The inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 and started taking oral evidence in March 2000.

It is expected to last two years.