A man wounded on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972 has been giving evidence at the murder trial of Solider F.
Joe Mahon, who was 16 at the time of the shootings, told of how he saw one soldier “firing from the hip” as he entered Glenfada Park North in Derry.
Mr Mahon said he was struck and fell – at first believing he was hit by a rubber bullet.
Pretending to be dead, he then described seeing a soldier walk past another person lying on the ground, James Wray, and firing two shots into him.
Soldier F, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of the murders of Mr Wray, 22, and William McKinney, 26.
They were among 13 people who were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment at a civil rights demonstration in the Bogside area of Derry on 30 January, 1972.
He is further accused of five counts of attempted murder, including that of Mr Mahon.
He is on trial at Belfast Crown Court and denies all the charges.
Mr Mahon recalled attending the civil rights protest and, when trouble broke out, seeking refuge in Glenfada Park North with a group of about 40 others.
“We classed it as being a safe area,” he said.
“The Army never came in to Glenfada Park.”
He then described paratroopers coming into the courtyard, with the first soldier opening fire with his rifle.
“I found myself on the ground,” he said.
“I thought I was hit by a rubber bullet.
“I know it might sound stupid or funny because when you see someone shot on TV they are rolling about in pain but I wasn’t that way.
“I heard a voice beside me, there was a gentleman to my right lying on the road, he said: ‘I am hit son, I am hit’.”
Mr Mahon said he later found out it was Mr McKinney.
He said he recalled a soldier walking past him and then firing two shots into Mr Wray after he moved on the ground.
“He walked past me and Mr McKinney and before he did come across, I heard a voice, a woman saying, ‘Lie still, pretend you are dead’.
“He walked past us… as he approached Mr Wray, he fired two shots into him.”
At one point, while giving his evidence, he became emotional while looking at photos and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.
The trial continues.
Soldier F is a former British soldier who served with the Army’s Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
He cannot be named due to an interim court order granting his anonymity.
The decision to charge Soldier F was taken by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in 2019.
He was one of 18 former soldiers reported to the PPS as a result of a police investigation, which followed the public inquiry into Bloody Sunday conducted by Lord Saville.
But he was the only one charged.
Two years later, the PPS dropped the case after the collapse of the trial of two other veterans who had been accused of a 1972 murder in Belfast.
But the prosecution resumed in 2022 after a legal challenge.
