Bloody Sunday Soldier F Trial: Malachy Coyle Gives Evidence — Transcript

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1. 0:00Now, a witness has told the soldierf
2. 0:02trial how he tried to help a man shot on
3. 0:05bloody Sunday by telling him to play
4. 0:07dead. Maliki Coyle was 15 in 1972. He
5. 0:12was giving evidence at the trial of
6. 0:14Soldier F, who denies two charges of
7. 0:16murder and five charges of attempted
8. 0:19murder. This report from Katherine
9. 0:21Morrison contains some strong language.
10. 0:24Maliki Coyle was a school boy studying
11. 0:26for his O levels when he joined
12. 0:28thousands of others on a civil rights
13. 0:30march in Derry in 1972. He recalled in
14. 0:34court today what happened next. He
15. 0:36described how the CS gas used on
16. 0:38marchers left him throwing up and unable
17. 0:41to breathe. To escape it, he went into
18. 0:43Glenfa Park North. Then he told the
19. 0:46court he heard high velocity shots ring
20. 0:48out. In the panic that ensued, he was
21. 0:51pulled into someone's backyard. Through
22. 0:53a fence, he saw three bodies on the
23. 0:55ground. The man closest to Mr. Coyle
24. 0:58said, "I can't move my legs." Mr. Coyle
25. 1:01told him, "Don't move. Pretend you're
26. 1:03dead." Another shot rang out. Mr. Coyle
27. 1:07said the man groaned and put his head
28. 1:09down. He was gone. Mr. Coyle told the
29. 1:12court he did not see who fired the shot.
30. 1:15Soldier F, who can't be named for legal
31. 1:17reasons, denies the murders of William
32. 1:19McKini and James Ray and five counts of
33. 1:21attempted murder. They were among 13
34. 1:24people who were shot dead by the
35. 1:25parachute regiment at a civil rights
36. 1:27demonstration on the 30th of January,
37. 1:301972.
38. 1:31Mr. Coyle told the court that one
39. 1:33soldier was different in appearance and
40. 1:35manner to the others. He was not wearing
41. 1:38a helmet as he walked across Glenfa Park
42. 1:40North. He said he saw the soldier turn
43. 1:43and look towards a group of mostly young
44. 1:46men hiding behind flats. He looked angry
45. 1:48and unstable. Mr. Coyle added, "I think
46. 1:52he said, "I'm going to shoot you, you
47. 1:54Irish bastards." He said he then saw
48. 1:57that soldier shoot towards a young man
49. 1:59who was trying to run away, but didn't
50. 2:01know if he was hit. A number of
51. 2:03statements from witnesses were also read
52. 2:05to the court, including from Joseph
53. 2:07Gallagher, who described how a bullet
54. 2:09flew through his hair as he bent over
55. 2:11the body of James Ray. He said he had
56. 2:13seen a soldier with fair hair firing
57. 2:15steadily. The trial continues next week.
58. 2:18Katherine Morrison, BBC Newsine,
59. 2:20Belfast.