Bloody Sunday commander denies 'brutal' reputation

The former commander of the paratroops involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings became the first witness to give evidence on the mainland yesterday after the Saville inquiry reopened in Westminster at a cost of £15m.

Last year the Court of Appeal ruled that the evidence from the soldier witnesses should not be taken in Londonderry because they had reasonable fears for their safety in Northern Ireland.

General Sir Frank Kitson, commander of 39 Brigade covering army units in Belfast in January 1972, denied his soldiers had a "brutal" reputation or that they had been routinely used as "shock troops" to quell riots. He also denied that fellow senior officers had told him they did not want his paratroops on their "patches" because they damaged community relations.

A tribunal ruling in 1999 granted anonymity to soldiers whose names were not in the public domain. Sir Frank, an expert in counter-insurgency techniques, has made no attempt to protect his identity.

Yesterday he told the tribunal at the Central Hall, Westminster, that he had been on leave at the time of the Bloody Sunday shootings, when 13 unarmed civilians were killed by paratroops during a protest march in Londonderry. The decision to call in his Belfast-based paratroops to help with the march was made without consulting him, he said.

Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked Sir Frank about reports of the "fearsome" and "brutal" reputation of 1 Para, the regiment deployed during the shootings. Mr Clarke went on to read out passages from media interviews with Army officers serving in Northern Ireland at the time to highlight the reputation of Sir Frank's soldiers.

In one of these interviews a former captain talked about how the "terrorists were frightened of 1 Para". The officer added: "One Para had been trained by Frank Kitson to develop this reptuation as a stabiliser in his Brigade area."

Mr Clarke asked: "Do you recall that part of the thinking for the use of 1 Para was that their reputation ... would precede them to Londonderry so that if they were deployed they would be a fearsome sight?"

Sir Frank answered: "No.... I do not think that would have ever occurred to me either."

Mr Clarke also read out newspaper reports that referred to army officers who had approached Sir Frank, a Brigadier at the time, to ask him to keep his soldiers "off their patches". According to the reports some commanding officers were concerned about the damage paratroops did to community relations. Sir Frank said he could not remember having any such conversations.

A further 250 soldiers are expected to give evidence to the tribunal in the coming months.

Sir Edward Heath, who was Prime Minister at the time of Bloody Sunday, and the former foreign secretary Lord Carrington are also expected to give evidence in London.