Soldier quizzed about other attacks

Soldiers are giving evidence at the hearing in London

A former parachute regiment soldier has told the Saville Inquiry he does not know if soldiers who were involved in Bloody Sunday shootings were questioned in connection with a separate incident.

Soldier 027, who began giving his testimony to the inquiry from behind a screen last week, has told the tribunal that some of his colleagues opened fire on civilians "without justification".

During Monday's hearing, he was cross-examined by lawyers for the relatives of those killed.

The tribunal is investigating the events of 30 January 1972 when soldiers of the parachute regiment fired on civilians at a civil rights march in Derry, killing 13 men and boys. Another man died later.

Lord Saville: Rejected a call for Soldier 027 to be questioned about a second case

Seamus Treacy QC, counsel for many of the bereaved families, wanted paratrooper 027, to answer other questions about other beatings and killings in which the soldiers were suspects.

Soldier 027 was specifically asked if he knew the soldiers involved in Bloody Sunday were questioned by police about an attack on two Catholic men who were beaten up and left for dead in a loyalist part of Belfast a few days later.

Raymond Muldoon and Francis Creagh were kidnapped, beaten and then left for dead on the Shankill Road in February.

Mr Treacy said: "Mr Muldoon and Mr Creagh were ill-treated by members of the anti-tank platoon. They were abducted and were then dumped on the Shankill Road.

Reprisals

"They were dumped outside a loyalist bar and when they were dumped outside the loyalist bar they were identified by the soldiers as Catholics, thereby making them targets for loyalist paramilitaries."

Soldier 027 said he could not remember if any of the soldiers had been questioned by police over the incident.

He has been living under a witness protection scheme for two years because of worries about possible reprisals.

His evidence so far has contradicted the Army's version of events on Bloody Sunday in which it said the soldiers were fired on before they opened fire.

Inquiry chairman Lord Saville rejected a call for Soldier 027 to be questioned about the soldiers' alleged involvement in the controversial killing of two Protestants in the Shankill Road in September 1972.

Inquiry is examining events on Bloody Sunday

Lord Saville said he was "extremely dubious" of its relevance to the inquiry.

"The Divis Flats example is a day or two after Bloody Sunday involving, on the face of it, the same personnel who were involved in Bloody Sunday and it seems to us that is the right side of the line."

Last week, the former soldier told the Saville Inquiry he made up his earliest accounts of what happened on Bloody Sunday so they did not reflect badly on the Army.

He also said he did not see any gunmen or bombers in the Bogside where the shootings took place.

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The soldier also told the tribunal he believed just two soldiers were probably responsible for eight or 10 of the deaths.

Soldier 027's account is hotly contested. Most of the soldiers who are to give evidence to the inquiry are expected to insist they only fired at gunmen or bombers or when they felt that they or their colleagues were at risk.

The inquiry has been sitting in Derry, but was moved to London to hear evidence from military witnesses following court action in which they argued they could be targeted by dissident republicans if they had to travel to Northern Ireland.

The Army has always maintained that it was fired on by IRA gunmen before it opened fired and this view was upheld by the Widgery Inquiry, held shortly after the shootings.

The relatives of those killed and injured have always denied that the Army were fired on before they opened fire.

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.