Soldiers were 'if not frightened, highly apprehensive' of operation

The Principal Conclusions of the report into the events of January 30, 1972, when soldiers killed 14 civil rights marchers in the Bogside, have exonerated those who lost their lives.

"Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers," the report states, "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.

"There was some firing by republican paramilitiaries (though nothing approaching that claimed by some soldiers) which we discuss in detail in this report, but in our view none of this firing provided any justification for the shooting of the civilian casualties."

The report also paints a picture of soldiers being sent into an area regarded as "a particularly dangerous area for the security forces, with any incursion running the risk of meeting attacks by paramiltiaries using bombs and firearms."

It adds: "In the minds of some soldiers that belief was reinforced by the shot fired by a member of the Official IRA (OIRA) some minutes earlier at soldiers by the Presbyterian Church in Great James' Street."

The report accepts none of the casualties were armed, none posed any threat of causing death or serious injury and no warnings were given but it also allows for the possibility of some soldiers having fired in a state of "fear or panic, without giving proper thought to whether his target was posing a threat of causing death or serious injury".

"In short," the report argues, "soldiers of Support Company went into what they perceived to be a dangerous area in which they ran the risk of coming under lethal attack at any time.

"Again, if these soldiers were not frightened, they must at least have been highly apprehensive."

But although Saville allows for the possibility of some soldiers firing in "fear or panic" this was not generally the case, according to the report.

One soldier - known as Lance Corporal F - who killed Michael Kelly, aged 17, Patrick Doherty, aged 31, Bernard McGuigan, aged 41, and was thought by Saville to have injured Patrick Campbell and Daniel McGowan - displayed no fear or panic, it said.

In respect of the death of Michael Kelly: "In our view Lance Corporal F did not fire in panic or fear without giving proper thought to whether he had identified a person posing a threat of causing death or serious injury.

"We are aware that instead he fired either in the belief that no-one at the rubble barricades 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 report also states that Martin McGuinness - an IRA leader in Londonderry at the time- was armed with a sub-machine gun in the Bogside on the day of the killings.

The report investigated allegations that the former "Adjutant of the Derry Brigade or Command of the Provisional IRA" had engaged in paramilitary activity on Janury 30, 1972.

"In the end we were left in some doubt as to his movements on the day.

"Before the soldiers of Support Company went into the Bogside he was probably armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun, and though it is possible that he fired this weapon, there is insufficient to make any finding on this, save that we are sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire," said the report.