The paratrooper who fired the most shots on Bloody Sunday told the SavilleInquiry today that he fired 19 times at a sniper behind a bathroom window but did not break the glass.
Soldier H, who fired a total of 22 rounds on the day that 13 unarmed civilianswere killed, claimed he saw the muzzle of a gun poking out of a window.
He said 'I therefore started firing at the window. Each shot was aimed and fired with my weapon at my shoulder.
'Each time I fired a shot, the shape behind the window moved away from thewindow and then came back, so I kept firing.'
Lord Saville is investigating the events of 30 January 1972, when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by soldiers during a civil rights march in theBogside.
The former soldier, who was giving evidence at Central Hall in Westminster, was one of a small group of soldiers who moved into Glenfada Park North, from where six victims were killed and seven wounded.
Another one of them, Soldier F, admitted last week that he shot dead four of the 13 victims.
Soldier H claimed in his statement to have shot two youths as they handled anail bomb just after he entered Glenfada Park North.
He recalled seeing one youth holding a smoking object in his hands and fired two quick shots at him.
'I hit him with one of my shots, possibly both, although I am not surewhere on his body he was hit,' he said.
Shortly after the young man he shot fell to the ground, he said a second youth picked up the nail bomb and began running with it.
'I fired one shot at him and hit him in the shoulder. He did not fall to theground and continued running,' he added.
It was after shooting the two youths that he claimed he saw the rifle in the window.
He said he could not call out to warn his colleagues as he was wearing arespirator and fired the 19 shots over a period of 30 seconds.
Each time he fired, the sniper disappeared from view, he claimed, but the muzzle of the gun remained visible through what appeared to be frosted glass.
The witness claimed he had to stop firing to change his magazine.
'All the time I was changing my magazine, the threat of being fired atremained and I was totally focused on re-engaging the gunman and protecting my colleagues.'
None of the shots hit the window, but H found it difficult to believe he wouldhave missed it, he added.
'I cannot remember seeing it break and wonder whether it had reinforcement wire in it.'
When Soldier H gave his evidence to the first Inquiry, held in 1972, thechairman, Lord Widgery, disputed his account that he fired 19 times at the window.
The former Lord Chief Justice concluded in his report 'Soldier H did notfire 19 shots at a gunman ... those bullets were wholly unaccounted for.'
Soldier H denied claims from Soldier O27, who has already given evidence, that he fired from the hip on Bloody Sunday.
'I did not shoot from the hip at all that day. In my opinion, it would bevirtually impossible to shoot with any degree of accuracy from the hip,' he said.
