Bloody Sunday officer, 84, fails to recall

A former MI5 officer gave evidence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry yesterday on a video link to a monitor screened from the public gallery.

The precautions were to protect a man identified only as David, who was the security liaison officer in Northern Ireland on January 30 1972.

He said he could remember very little about the events in Derry when soldiers killed 13 unarmed civil rights marchers, and fatally wounded another.

His job was to encourage the exchange of intelligence between the army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. He did not run agents and he did not have access to agent's files, he said.

As the less than productive questioning continued, Eileen Doherty, whose husband Paddy was one of those killed, walked out in protest at measures to protect David's identity.

Barry MacDonald QC, counsel for many of the families of the dead and injured, asked why David, a former head of intelligence in Northern Ireland, had travelled to London to prepare his statement but not to give evidence.

David replied: "Well, I told you that the experience of going to London had a lasting effect. I am now 84 years old, I have a very dodgy short-term memory and it takes a while for me to recover."

He said he did not remember seeing anything specific which showed the IRA planned to use the march as a cover for attacking soldiers.

He added: "But I do remember that it was endemic at that time that the IRA would join marches, demonstrations and any civil disturbance, to exploit opportunities to cause trouble to the security forces."

In a revised statement prepared with the help of serving MI5 officers, he referred to a joint intelligence committee document saying the IRA instigated street disorders "with the aim of drawing the army into a position where they could be attacked by grenades, nail bombs, and fire arms".