[A-List] UK state: Northern Ireland

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Apology for Bloody Sunday accusations
By Robert Verkaik Legal Affairs Correspondent
The Independent, 01 October 2002

A former British Army intelligence officer yesterday apologised to the
Bloody Sunday inquiry for claiming, hours after the shooting of 13
unarmed civilians, that four of the dead were wanted IRA terrorist
suspects.

Maurice Tugwell, then Colonel General Staff (Information Policy) at
Headquarters Northern Ireland, said he made the claim in a radio
interview after seeking "oral" intelligence checks on the victims.

Col Tugwell went as an observer to the march in Londonderry on 30
January 1972, taking a camera with him.

Yesterday he told the inquiry chaired by Lord Saville in London: "Later,
I am not sure when, I discovered that the allegation that four men were
on a wanted list could not be sustained. I apologise for this error."
The inquiry continues.

* A senior detective is to head a fresh investigation into one of
Northern Ireland's worst terrorist atrocities. Chief Inspector Pat
Steele's inquiry will examine claims that a Catholic priest, Father Jim
Chesney, was in charge of an IRA unit that planted a car bomb in Claudy,
near Londonderry, in July 1972 which killed six adults and three
children. Fr Chesney is claimed to have confessed to another priest
shortly after the attack. He died of cancer in 1980.