Cameron apologises for Bloody Sunday as damning Saville report blames British soldiers for 'unjustifiable' killings

By Nicola Boden
15th June 2010

• Cameron: Bloody Sunday shootings should never have happened
  
• Saville Inquiry finds British soldiers shot first and were not provoked
• No warnings were given and some paratroopers lost control
• Fleeing protesters were shot as they fled or as they lay wounded
• Many soldiers later lied about their actions to cover up the truth
• Ex-IRA chief McGuinness 'probably' armed with a sub-machine gun
• Prime Minister urges Northern Ireland to 'move on' 

David Cameron today condemned the conduct of British soldiers on Bloody Sunday as 'unjustified' and 'indefensible' as a damning report found they should never have opened fire.

The long-awaited Saville Report into the 1972 clash was an outright condemnation of paratroopers, ruling they had run amok and lost control during a civil rights demonstration in Londonderry.

Soldiers fired without provocation and gave no warning, the 12-year probe found. It ruled all 14 who died and the others who were injured almost four decades ago had been unarmed and were completely innocent.

The troops had also continued to shoot as the protesters fled or lay fatally wounded on the ground. One father was shot as he went to tend to his injured son, the mammoth 5,000 page report revealed.

Soldiers later consistently lied about the chain of events, insisting they had only retaliated, in a bid to cover-up the truth, the document - described as 'shocking' by Mr Cameron - said.

'We found no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing,' it declared.

'Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers. No one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at the soldiers on Bloody Sunday.'

Although the report stopped short of branding the killings unlawful and calling for soldiers to be prosecuted, victims' families are now likely to demand further action.

Relatives joined thousands outside the Guildhall in Londonderry this afternoon to hear Mr Cameron's unqualified apology and cheered and punched the air as it was broadcast. 

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and former IRA chief Martin McGuiness, who was the second in command of the IRA in the town at the time of the killings, were also in the crowds. 

In an extraordinary statement to the Commons, Mr Cameron said: 'You do not defend the British Army by defending the indefensible. There is no point trying to soften or equivocate what is in the report. It is clear from the tribunal's authoritative conclusions that the events of Bloody Sunday were in no way justified.' 

He added: 'I know that some people wonder whether nearly 40 years on from an event a Prime Minister needs to issue an apology.

'For someone of my generation, Bloody Sunday and the early 1970s are something we feel we have learned about rather than lived through. But what happened should never, ever have happened.

'The families of those who died should not have had to live with the pain and the hurt of that day and with a lifetime of loss. Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly.

'The Government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of our armed forces and for that, on behalf of the Government - and indeed our country - I am deeply sorry.'

While the reports findings are damning, the jubilant scenes in Londonderry this afternoon will trigger anger amongst the British military and victims of IRA atrocities.

Army chiefs will fear the highly-critical findings could trigger a witchhunt against the soldiers involved and will complain about a double standard because former paramilitaries have been given immunity.

There is also anger that the inquiry has cost the taxpayer £200million and 12 years has been spent investigating deaths that took place nearly four decades ago.

Mr Cameron promised today: 'There will be no more open-ended and costly inquiries into the past.'

Bloody Sunday on January 30 1972 was one of the most controversial moments of the Troubles. Paratroopers opened fire while trying to police a banned civil rights march.

They killed 13 marchers outright and another later died in hospital. The soldiers always insisted they were returning fire but Whitehall has long accepted the victims did not have guns or explosives.

An initial inquiry by Lord Widgery was branded a whitewash. John Major rejected pleas for a new inquiry but Tony Blair agreed to do so in 1998 during the talks with Sinn Fein that led to the Good Friday peace deal.

Critics felt it was an unnecessary concession and Mr McGuinness has since admitted an apology would have been enough. 

Senior military figures have demanded that any prosecution of soldiers should be accompanied by a parallel case against Mr McGuinness, now the province's Deputy Prime Minister.

The report contradicted the former IRA chief's claim he never had a weapon. He probably had been armed with sub-machine gun and may have fired, although this could not be proven, it said.

However, it concluded: 'He did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire.'

Asked about the finding outside the Guildhall, Mr McGuinness denied having a weapon. 'He (Lord Saville) fully pointed the finger of blame for what happened directly at the British Parachute Regiment,' he said.

The inquiry found there was no evidence of a 'conspiracy' involving senior military commanders and politicians and dismissed the possibility that the killings were 'premeditated'.

It squarely placed the blame on the shoulders of Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford, who gave the order for troops to enter the nationalist Bogside estate.

This was the move widely credited with prompting the killings and was in defiance of a clear order from a superior officer not to go into the area.

It also concluded that 'on balance' the first shot was fired by British soldiers, contrary to their accounts later, and happened without warning.

The support company 'reacted by losing their self-control... forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training', leading to a 'serious and widespread loss of fire discipline'.

Later, many soldiers involved had 'knowingly put forward false accounts in order to seek to justify their firing', the report said.

'In our view, none of these soldiers fired in the belief that he had, or might have identified, a person in possession of or using or about to use bombs or firearms,' Lord Saville said.

'We are sure that these soldiers fired either in the belief that no-one in the areas towards which they respectively fired was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury, or not caring whether or not anyone there was posing a threat. In their case it is unlikely they fired in a state of fear or panic.'

It recounted in grim detail how each of the victims were killed, including William McKinney and Jim Wray who were shot in the back.

One person was shot as he was 'crawling away from the soldiers', another 'when he was lying mortally wounded on the ground', it said. Alexander Nash was shot and injured as he tended to his dying son, 19-year-old William.

There had been speculation about how the document would account for the death of Gerald Donaghey, 17, a member of the IRA's youth wing who was found with nail bombs in his pockets.

After people tending his wounds insisted they had not seen the devices, there were claims the bombs had been planted by security forces.

Although it was concluded they were 'probably' on him when he was shot, it was decided he was 'not preparing or attempting to throw a nail bomb when he was shot'.

'We are equally sure that he was not shot because of his possession of nail bombs. He was shot while trying to escape from soldiers,' the report said.

Gerald was killed by a bullet that passed through fellow victim Gerard McKinney.

The soldier who killed him, known only as Private G, had 'falsely denied' firing the shot and 'must have fired knowing that Gerard McKinney was not posing a threat', the report said.

It declared: 'None of the casualties was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury, or indeed was doing anything else that could on any view justify their shooting.' 

Families of the dead and lawyers for both sides were given early access to the report under strict secrecy before its official launch by Mr Cameron. 

The last total for the cost of the probe was given as £191million in February but more legal bills have been added since then.

It was described by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke at the weekend as 'a disaster in terms of time and expense'.

Relatives of the dead are now likely to push for criminal trials although they have said soldiers should not be jailed if they are prosecuted.

Any criminal case would be hampered by the length of time since the killings and conflicting recollections of witnesses suggest evidence firm enough for convictions would be hard to gather.

But relatives are adamant they want justice to be done and could launch civil cases against the paratroopers - who are now in their 60s - if criminal action is not taken.

Tony Doherty, whose father Paddy was killed in the shootings, was applauded loudly as he addressed the thousands outside the Guildhall to welcome the report.

'It can now be proclaimed to the world that the dead and the wounded of Bloody Sunday, civil rights marchers, one and all, were innocent, one and all, gunned down on their own streets by soldiers who had been given to believe that they could kill with perfect impunity,' he said.

'It was the paratroopers' mission in Derry to massacre. Bloody Sunday wounded Derry very, very badly. We may hope that from today we can begin to bind those wounds.'

'When the state kills its citizens, it is in the interests of all that those responsible be held to account. It is not just Derry, or one section of the people, but democracy itself which needs to look out. The British people need to know, the Irish people need to know, the world now knows.'

Bereaved relatives took it in turns to take to the microphone on the steps of the building to read out the names of the dead and then shout: 'Innocent'.

John Kelly, whose teenage brother Michael died, declared: 'We have overcome' and then ripped up a copy of the heavily-criticised Widgery report which had controversially exonerated the soldiers.

To huge applause, he said: ‘Those gunned down on Bloody Sunday were ordinary, decent, innocent Derry people. That’s the verdict we wanted and that’s the verdict we got.’

The head of the Army backed the findings and Mr Cameron's apology but stressed the sacrifice of other British soldiers in Northern Ireland who never put a foot wrong. 

THE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS

Chief of the General Staff General Sir David Richards said: 'The report leaves me in no doubt that serious mistakes and failings by officers and soldiers on that terrible day led to the deaths of 13 civilians who did nothing that could have justified their shooting.

'The Prime Minister has apologised on behalf of the Government of the United Kingdom, the Army and those involved on the day, and I fully support that statement.

'We must never forget the tragic events of Bloody Sunday. In the 38 years since that tragic day's events, lessons have been learned. The way the Army is trained, the way it works and the way it operates have all changed significantly.

'We should also remember that the overwhelming majority of the military personnel deployed over 38 years in Northern Ireland conducted themselves with utter professionalism, restraint and humanity.

'The cost was high, with 651 service personnel killed, and over 6,000 wounded. They played an important role in protecting the people of Northern Ireland, providing much-needed stability and thereby helping to set the conditions for the peace Northern Ireland enjoys today.'

An apology by Mr Cameron - who was just five at the time of the shootings - follows the example set by Labour of sealing off nagging historic disputes by saying sorry.

One of Tony Blair's first acts as Prime Minister was to make a statement that Britain had failed the Irish people in the terrible famine of the 1840s.

Mr Blair also apologised in 2006 for Britain's part in the Atlantic slave trade.

In February, Gordon Brown said sorry for the 'cruelty' of migration schemes which sent 150,000 children to Australia from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The longest and most expensive inquiry in British history

Lord Saville's inquiry into Bloody Sunday has lasted 12 years and is the longest and most expensive in British history.

Carried into the Guildhall in Londonderry in vast red boxes today, it stretches to 5,000 pages and 10 volumes.

Around 2,500 people gave testimony to the inquiry, almost 1,000 in person including 505 civilians, 245 military, 35 paramilitaries, 39 politicians and civil servants, seven priests and 33 policemen.

Evidence ran to 160 volumes of data with an estimated 30million words, 13 volumes of photographs, 121 audio tapes and 10 video tapes.

As of February, the probe had cost the taxpayer £191million but legal bills are still coming in and the final total is expected to top £200million.

Taxpayers have been paying £50,000 a week in staff and office costs and for mammoth lawyers' fees.

Lord Saville himself has been paid £2million - although this is equal to how much he would have received as a law lord and later Supreme Court justice.

The four main barristers are believed to have earnt more than £12million with two - Sir Christopher Clarke and Edwin Glasgow QC - scooping £4million each.

Sir Christopher is lead counsel for the inquiry and Mr Glasgow the top lawyer for the British Armed Forces.

Left-wing barrister Michael Mansfield - nicknamed Mr Moneybags for his high earnings - was paid £740,000 for acting for some of the victims' families.

The inquiry was ordered by Tony Blair on January 29, 1998. At the time, he was engaged in negotiations with Sinn Fein leaders in the run-up to the Good Friday peace deal in 1998.

Lord Widgery's probe into the shootings in 1972 was condemned as a 'whitewash' by victims' families and Lord Saville was asked to provide a definitive account of the event.

But it has been condemned as pointless by critics - particularly since Martin McGuinness later revealed a simple apology would have been enough to assuage their anger.

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke declared it a 'disaster' for its vast expense and interminable length this weekend, saying it had got 'ludicrously out of hand'.

What sparked Bloody Sunday?

The Troubles broke out at the end of the 60s as police clashed with civil rights protesters who wanted an end to discriminatory housing and voting practices against Roman Catholics.

British soldiers were deployed onto the streets of the province in 1969 after a summer of violent sectarian clashes between Protestants and Catholics.

In August 1971, the Stormont government introduced internment - detention without trial - in a bid to break the republican paramilitary movement. Large public assemblies and processions were banned.

The move only fuelled anger and increased IRA support. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association called for the powers to be scrapped and protests were organised across the country.

Many ended in ugly clashes with the authorities. A week before Bloody Sunday, soldiers fired plastic bullets and CS gas at protesters at one event near Derry.

Four days later, two RUC officers were shot dead by republicans in the nationalist Creggan area of the city.

Below is a timetable of how Bloody Sunday unfolded (left) and the key events since the shootings that have led to today's publication of the Saville Report (right).

A stained handkerchief - the image that defined the shootings

The sister of one of the Bloody Sunday victims will today grip the bloodstained handkerchief waved on the day he died.

Father Edward Daly had held the hankie aloft as four men carried the dying body of Jackie Duddy, 17, through the gunfire.

It had been used to cover the teenager's wounds and was later returned to his father along with the his washed clothes.

His sister Kay, 63, kept it for decades before handing it over to a museum in Derry's Bogside after nearly losing it in an attempted mugging.

Miss Duddy asked the museum to have it back for the publication of today's report. 'We'll all need the handkerchief,' she said.

'I used to say that I've become synonymous with Bloody Sunday. Now I want to become anonymous with the publication of this report.

Father Daly was the Bogside's parish priest at the time and went on to be the Bishop of Derry.

He said: 'I always carry a handkerchief and I still do. I tucked it under Jackie Duddy's shirt when he was going in the ambulance to try and staunch the blood.'

Bishop Daly, now 76, recounted his version of the events. 'There was kind of ritual almost in Rossville Street that the army came a certain distance but no further, they just came to the mouth of Rossville Street,' he said.

'But this time it was different, they came right towards us. So at that time people sensed something was up, there was something different, and people started running. I also ran into towards the square of the (Rossville) flats.

'I noticed a young fella (Jackie Duddy) coming towards me and just as soon he was about up with me he gasped. I thought he had been hit by a rubber bullet. I went on and took cover behind a little wall and looked back out.

'After some time - there was quite a lot of firing then, a lot of live ammunition - I looked out where he was and I saw him lying in the courtyard of the flats.

'He was lying in the middle of a car parking grid. So after the firing I went out there to see how he was. I reckoned at that stage he must have been hit by a bullet. When I went out there was blood pouring out of his chest.

'There were a few other people came out and the firing started again and we were caught in the middle of it. I tried to tend his wound and then I gave him the last rites.'

During the next lull in shooting, he and four others tried to carry the teenager out of the line of fire but their efforts were in vain and Jackie died shortly afterwards.

In the frantic days that followed, Father Daly was on the front of the world's papers. The Irish government asked him to go to the U.S. to recount his version of events. He also gave evidence at the much-maligned Widgery inquiry.

The cleric hopes the Saville Inquiry will allow him to close a long chapter.

'Bloody Sunday has been a shadow over my life for the last nearly forty years and not forgetting the families but I want to get on with my life,' he said.

Prime Minister calls on Northern Ireland to 'move on'

David Cameron attempted to close off the possibility of legal action against the soldiers blamed for the Bloody Sunday killings, saying the country should ‘move on’.

The Prime Minister made clear that legal action is now in the hands of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Belfast.

But drawing a line under the affair, Mr Cameron called for the community in Northern Ireland to ‘come together to close this painful chapter on Northern Ireland’s troubled past’.

The Prime Minister told MPs: ‘These matters should be determined independently by the DPP in the correct way.’

But he added: ‘I hope it won't be used as a 'springboard' for further inquiries or for further action. This is supposed to be something that will help by delivering the truth to help achieve closure.’

Privately, senior government insiders expressed doubts that the soldiers condemned in the report could get a fair trial as a result of the condemnation in the report.

Downing Street officials repeatedly stressed that evidence given by the soldiers could not be used against them in future criminal proceedings or in civil trials brought by the families of the dead.

In 1999 the Attorney General issued a statement saying: ‘Evidence given by witnesses to the inquiry would not be used to prejudice that person in any criminal proceedings, except proceedings where the witness is charged with giving false evidence.’

Because the Saville report was savage in its conclusion that many of those soldiers involved had ‘knowingly put forward false accounts in order to seek to justify their firing' there is a possibility of a perjury case being brought.

Northern Ireland Chief Constable Matt Baggott and Sir Alasdair Fraser, head of the Public Prosecution Service, are to have talks to consider whether the paras will face criminal charges.

In a statement they added: ‘It is not practical, at this stage, to say when such decisions will be taken other than to indicate that the matter will be considered as expeditiously as possible.’

Lord Saville's report - although it called the actions of soldiers 'indefensible' - has made no recommendation on whether they should be prosecuted, and does not use legal phrases such as 'unlawful killing' to describe their actions.

Chief prosecutor Sir Alasdair - who is to retire in September - will have to consider whether any prosecution, for murder or perjury, has a good chance of success, and whether it is in the public interest.

A murder trial, which would be heard by a jury rather than by a judge sitting alone as in a terrorist 'Diplock' trial, would need to hear evidence from 38 years ago.

On top of the problems of whether a trial can now be fair, such evidence would inevitably be eroded by the fading or confusion of memories.

If the DPP does not order a prosecution, the families of the dead could pursue a private prosecution, but would face the same difficulty.

They could also now launch a large damages action against the Government or against individual soldiers - although none of the Saville evidence would be admissable if it went to court and the same difficulties of memory would apply.

Article: HERE 

Bloody Sunday report blames British soldiers fully

LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland – Relatives of 13 Catholic demonstrators shot to death by British troops on Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday cried tears of joy Tuesday as an epic fact-finding probe ruled that their loved ones were innocent and the soldiers entirely to blame for the 1972 slaughter.

The investigation took 12 years and nearly 200 million pounds ($290 million), but the victims' families and the British, Irish and U.S. governments welcomed the findings as priceless to heal one of the gaping wounds left from Northern Ireland's four-decade conflict that left 3,700 dead.

Thousands of residents of Londonderry — a predominantly Catholic city long synonymous with Britain's major mass killing from the Northern Ireland conflict — gathered outside the city hall to watch the verdict come in, followed by a lengthy apology from Prime Minister David Cameron in London that moved many locals long distrustful of British leaders.

The probe found that soldiers opened fire without justification at unarmed, fleeing civilians and lied about it for decades, refuting an initial British investigation that branded the demonstrators as Irish Republican Army bombers and gunmen.

Cameron, who was just 5 years old when the attack occurred, said it was "both unjustified and unjustifiable."

"I couldn't believe it, I was so overjoyed," said Kay Duddy, clutching the handkerchief used to swab blood from her 17-year-old brother's body that day. Jackie Duddy, the first of the 13 killed, was shot in the back.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I ever envisage a British prime minister would stand up in Parliament and tell the truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday," Duddy said.

"David Cameron told the world and its mother that Jackie Duddy and the rest of the deceased and injured were innocent people. They were totally exonerated today," she said.

One by one, relatives of the 13 dead and 15 wounded went to a podium, huge black-and-white pictures of their dead or wounded relative displayed on a massive television screen. Each declared their relief that the demonstrators were found innocent and the elite soldiers of the Parachute Regiment solely to blame.

"Thirty-eight years ago a story went around the world ... that there was gunmen and bombers on our streets, and they were shot and killed. Today that lie has been uncovered," said Kate Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was shot fatally once through the chest.

"Unjustified and unjustifiable. Those are the words we've been waiting to hear since January the 30th of 1972," said Tony Doherty, whose father, Patrick, was fatally shot as he crawled away from gunfire. The fact-finders rejected soldiers' claims that Doherty had been carrying a gun by digging up photos of Doherty seconds before he was hit and showing he was unarmed.

"The victims of Bloody Sunday have been vindicated, and the soldiers of the Parachute Regiment have been disgraced. Their medals of honor have to be removed!" Doherty declared to cheers.

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, authorized by then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998 in the run-up to the negotiation of the Good Friday peace accord that year, was led by English judge Lord Saville. He gave the ex-paratroopers, now in their 60s and 70s, broad protections from criminal charges as well as anonymity in the witness box, citing the risk that IRA dissidents might target them in retaliation.

Some legal experts, however, said wiggle room remains for prosecutions and, more likely, civil lawsuits against retired soldiers, particularly because some of the them were found to have lied to Saville.

The 5,000-page report is based on evidence from 921 witnesses, 2,500 written statements and 60 volumes of written evidence.

Cameron apologized on behalf of the British government and summarized its findings: The soldiers never should have been ordered to confront the protesters, they fired the first shots and targeted unarmed people who were clearly fleeing or aiding the helpless wounded. None of those killed or wounded that day in Londonderry had posed a threat to the soldiers, Saville concluded.

Saville's conclusions included damning new findings, including that soldiers fired twice at 22-year-old James Wray — once as he ran away, a second fatally after he was on the ground.

"As he lay there, defenseless and dying, he was deliberately shot again. The Saville report stated clearly that there was no justification for either of these two shots," said his brother Liam.

The demonstrators were protesting the internment without trial of IRA suspects. The report said some soldiers fired knowing their victims were unarmed, and may have concluded all protesters were tied to IRA factions and therefore legitimate targets.

"It is at least possible that they did so in the indefensible belief that all the civilians they fired at were probably either members of the Provisional or Official IRA or were supporters of one or other of these paramilitary organizations, and so deserved to be shot," the report said.

The report did find that one demonstrator killed, 17-year-old Gerald Donaghey, was a junior Provisional IRA member who was carrying four homemade grenades, called nail bombs, in his pockets. But it said Donaghey was running away when shot and posed no risk to soldiers.

Bloody Sunday justice campaigners long had claimed that the nail bombs, photographed inside the pockets of Donaghey's jacket at an army morgue, had been planted by soldiers trying to justify their shooting.

Saville also concluded that former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, now the senior Catholic in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government, probably was carrying a submachine gun during Bloody Sunday, based on other witnesses' testimony. The judge said, however, that no evidence existed to suggest that McGuinness had used the gun in a manner "that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire."

McGuinness, who in sworn testimony said he was unarmed, rejected Saville's charge. "I am absolutely denying that," he said.

Analysts said Saville's finding appeared likely to stir tensions between McGuinness and Protestants in the 3-year-old coalition, the centerpiece of the Good Friday peace deal.

The inquiry was originally budgeted to cost 11 million pounds and report findings by 2002. Instead, the final bill was estimated at nearly 200 million pounds — making it the longest and most expensive inquiry in British legal history. Cameron said Britain would never attempt anything like it again.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen praised the report. "From this day forth, history will record what the families have always known to be true. ... They were innocent," he said in Dublin.

"It is our hope that the scale of the inquiry, the quantity of material available, and its findings will contribute to greater understanding and reconciliation of what happened on that tragic day," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington.

Saville said Bloody Sunday represented a watershed event in the decades-old Catholic-Protestant conflict over Northern Ireland, a British territory now governed by a power-sharing coalition. It drove 1972 to be the conflict's deadliest year with more than 470 dead.

"What happened on Bloody Sunday strengthened the Provisional IRA, increased (Irish) nationalist resentment and hostility towards the army, and exacerbated the violent conflict of the years that followed. Bloody Sunday was a tragedy for the bereaved and the wounded, and a catastrophe for the people of Northern Ireland," Saville said.

The judge took evidence from former British government officials, the soldiers who opened fire that day and IRA members involved in the protest. He ruled that a few IRA men did come armed to the demonstration, but the soldiers fired the shots that started the one-sided bloodbath.

The No. 2 army officer on the scene on Bloody Sunday, retired Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, offered what he called a "fulsome apology" — but described the killings as an exceptional aberration.

"Over the 38 years of the army's operational deployment in the province, the vast majority of the some 250,000 soldiers who served there behaved admirably, often in the face of severe provocation, and with the loss of several hundred lives and over 6,000 wounded," said Jackson, who was a captain and second in command of the Parachute Regiment's 1st Battalion in 1972. He fired no shots that day.

Saville's findings declared that several soldiers who opened fire concocted cover stories to justify shooting unarmed people in the back. But he cautioned that each soldier's testimony to the inquiry could not be used "to incriminate that witness in any later criminal proceedings."

"This does not rule out the possibility of future criminal proceedings against an individual, but only means that their own evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry cannot be used against them," Saville wrote.

All families of the dead said it was too early to predict whether they would file lawsuits against any of the former soldiers.

The original 1972 investigation by another English judge, Lord Widgery, took barely two months to produce a brief report that chided soldiers for gunfire that "bordered on the reckless." But Widgery accepted soldiers' claims that they had been responding to IRA attacks, and said he suspected — despite any solid forensic or witness evidence beyond the soldiers' claims — that some of those killed "had been firing weapons or handling bombs in the course of the afternoon."

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David Stringer reported from London. Shawn Pogatchnik reported from Dublin.

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Online:

Bloody Sunday Inquiry report, http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/

Article: HERE