“It grazed my shoulder, the jacket I was wearing, and then went through my face and exited through my nose.”
A man recalled today (Thursday) how he was shot in the face on Bloody Sunday as he tried to run away during disturbances in Derry. Trouble erupted in the city on Sunday, January 30, 1972, following a Civil Rights March from Bishopsfield to William Street. Michael Quinn took to the witness stand at Belfast Crown Court in the trial of ‘Soldier F’, a former member of the Parachute Regiment who denies two counts of murder on and five of attempted murder on January 30, 1972. Those murdered were James Wray (22) and 26-year-old William McKinney. Mr Quinn was one of the murder bid victims. ‘Soldier F’ was present in court but was screened from the public and press by a blue curtain. Thirteen people were shot and killed by the Parachute Regiment following a Civil Rights march in the Bogside area of Derry on that Sunday afternoon. It is the prosecution case that shots fired by soldiers at unarmed civilians in Derry as they tried to run away were “unjustified”, “unlawful” and “deliberate”. Mr Quinn told the trial that on the day of Bloody Sunday he was aged 17 and went to the Civil Rights march with a number of friends. He described the mood among the marchers as “apprehensive” as they knew the paratroopers were going to be there. During his evidence, Mr Quinn said the original plan of the march was to go to Guildhall Square but its route was blocked by a rubble barrier erected by the British Army at William Street.
The witness recalled being asked by a man to carry one end of a Civil Rights banner for a short distance towards the Army before returning to his friends. “I didn’t know who he was at the time but I now know him to be Jim Wray who asked me to carry the banner,” said Mr Quinn. He remembered the trouble breaking out at a rubble barrier in William Street. “There wasn’t an awful lot of stones thrown. People and march stewards were trying to restrain the young people. “The water cannon turned up and I found myself drenched by the water cannon and people started to disperse. To dry off I walked around the area for a bit. “When I came back down to William Street I heard and saw the rubber bullets and was being fired as well. The gas got quite thick because of its continuous use and I had a handkerchief around my mouth to lessen the effect of it.” He recalled that after the disturbances broke out he saw two Army Saracens come into William Street. “I remember someone shouting ‘the Army are coming in”. Everybody started running. They drove along Rossville Street, one turned into Eden Place and the second Saracen into between Pilot Row and Rossville flats. “My friend and I started to run. He went one way and I went the other way. I could see soldiers jumping out of the back of the Saracens. “One of them had the butt of a rifle and was swinging the rifle like a club. I hadn’t seen that before and that was quite shocking.” He told prosecution barrister David McNeill that he crossed over the rubble barricade and “I heard four shots. It really threw me because I couldn’t understand why they were shooting because I had heard anything being fired at the Army. Mr Quinn continued: “I knew from the sound of them they were from an Army rifle – it is a hard crack sound. Over the previous six months we had grown accustomed to hearing gunfire and being able to distinguish between an Army SLR rifle and something the IRA might have been firing. “It was only when I turned around did I see the soldiers. There were four of five of them and appeared to a senior officer as they were standing around him. I think there was a soldier with a radio.” The witness told the court that he then saw a soldier emerge from an area near Rossville Flats. “He had his rifle by his side, raised it a little. From a pouch at his side he took out I took it to be a bullet. There was a setting sun behind us, it was quite bright, I could see the metal object glistening in the sun. He put it into the breech of the rifle. “At that point I said I am getting out of here. There were some people around us.” He said he didn’t know if the soldier fired or not. Mr Quinn said he made his way into Glenfada Park North “to take shelter as I thought it would have been safer with the protection of the maisonettes there”. Asked was there anybody else present, Mr Quinn replied: “There were two young fellas there who were a similar age to myself. “They were looking rather nervous. They were standing around. One of them looked around the corner. My memory is that one of them had what looked like a nail bomb in the pocket of a quilted jacket. I only saw the top of it. There was tape and a fuse coming out of the top. “A man in his mid-20s wearing a long coat walked down to them and said ‘put those away you will only get people killed’. He took them away to where he had come from. I never saw them again.” He said that in Rossville Street he could hear a “growing intensity of gunfire, a sustained period of gunfire and I couldn’t understand why. I knew it was all Army shooting. It was the SLR again.” Mr Quinn recalled seeing a man being shot. “I heard him call out, scream. He was on his own. I looked at him and saw a ring of blood emerging on his leg and he was collapsing to the ground. I didn’t see who shot him and I didn’t actually hear the shot. “I heard someone shout ‘there are people dying out here’. I was taking shelter as the gunfire was getting more intense.” He said that he saw a group of people carrying the body of a young man across Glenfada Park.
As he tried to get out of the courtyard in Glenfada Park, the witness said he heard someone shout ‘they (Army) are coming in’. “I ran crouching across the courtyard. I remember jumping over a raised piece of ground in the middle. “As I was approaching the exit to Abbey Park, I felt myself being struck by the bullet. “It grazed my shoulder, the jacket I was wearing, and then went through my face and exited through my nose. It hit me close to my ear. It broke the cheekbone, it shattered the cheekbone. “For some reason I kind of slowed down and I could actually see the flesh and blood breaking away from my face. “I stumbled but I managed to stay on my feet and I could see to my right someone falling forward a few feet in front of me. “I thought his head was hitting the kerb. “What made me think he was shot because he didn’t try to save himself, his hands didn’t go out.” He confirmed to the prosecutor that the injured man “didn’t break his fall”. A second witness, Derek McFeely, also gave evidence to the trial which is being presided over by Judge Patrick Lynch KC sitting along without a jury. He said he was aged 17 at the time of Bloody Sunday and had gone to the march with his friend Daniel Dunn and they joined the rally at the top of Westland Street. The witness recalled the march coming to a stop between Abbey Street and Rossville Street. “People were wondering what was going on and what was happening at the very front of the march and why the march had stopped on William Street,” said Mr McFeely. He remembered seeing soldiers inside a tall derelict building in a nearby street. “There was jeering at the soldiers, there was cat-calling and all of a sudden a shot rang out. All I can recollect is one single shot. “There was a man standing beside me, a young fella the same age as me, Mr Donaghy. He fell to the ground. He had been shot. Immediately a group of people in that area started to run towards Abbey Street and into Columbcille Court. “Myself and three other men lifted him and carried him to a house Columbcille Court.” Mr McFeely confirmed it was the intention of him and Mr Dunn to head into the Bogside and Glenfada Park North as it was “safer”. “When we entered the courtyard at Glenfada Park it is my recollection there were two bodies lying on the ground. “I went over to one of the bodies who was on my left. I knelt down to examine the person. I couldn’t see any evidence of blood or anything like that there. “My first impression was he had a heart attack or he had just collapsed. “It was a male and dressed in a long dark overcoat, black charcoal and he had black hair. He was aged above 30, he was stocky and well built. I stroked the back of the person’s head and back and my intention was to turn him over and then all of a sudden there was a call ‘there’s the Army coming’.” The witness said he looked up and saw a group of four or five soldiers coming into Glenfada Park and were “running and their rifles were across their bodies held against their chest”. “I decided then to make a fast exit through the entrance we had come in. I heard three or four shots as we exited Glenfada Park. If there was a second between each of them that was about it. It was quick. “After leaving Glenfada Park North I came across a person who had an injury to his face. “The only way I can describe it is that it looked like a busted tomato on his right cheek,” added Mr McFeely. At hearing.
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