‘Sunday’ Para who killed four revealed
This is the face of ‘Soldier F,’ the British Paratrooper who shot dead four innocent people in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday.
The photograph of the smirking soldier was taken at Fort George barracks just hours after the 1972 massacre and shows the lance corporal wearing his red Parachute Regiment beret with his face still blackened with camouflage paint.
The picture was taken as an ‘arrest’ photograph because at the time soldiers had to pose for a photograph alongside anyone they arrested.
Known at the Saville Inquiry as ‘Soldier F,’ he admitted shooting dead Michael Kelly, Paddy Doherty, Barney McGuigan, and Willie McKinney.
He initially denied shooting Michael Kelly after getting out of an armoured personnel carrier at Kells Walk as the unarmed 17 year-old stood at a rubble barricade on William Street.
The lance corporal initially said he did not fire the shot which killed the teenager but later admitted he did. Lord Saville found in his report that: “We are sure that instead he fired either in the belief that no-one at the rubble barricade was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury, or not caring whether or not anyone at the rubble barricade was posing such a threat.”
The paratrooper then moved into Glenfada Park where he’s believed to have shot dead Willie McKinney. Just moment later, he also gunned down Paddy Doherty, who was crawling away from the gunfire close to Rossville Flats, and Bernard McGuigan, who was shot while carrying a white handkerchief and trying to go to the aid of Mr Doherty.
He is also believed to have been responsible for wounding four others: Joe Mahon, Joe Friel, Patrick Campbell, and Daniel McGowan.
The lance corporal gave evidence anonymously to the Saville Inquiry in 2003 and said he fired 13 shots, adding: “There was gunmen and bombers killed.” This claim was rejected by Lord Saville’s report.
The former soldier could face prosecution after Lord Saville said he made a statement which “was to his knowledge false.”
