An "Independent" Witness ?

The ‘independent witness’ and Gerald Donaghey

In June 2012 the Bloody Sunday Trust, Pat Finucane Centre and Ráth Mór-Creggan Enterprises published a report and a DVD of a re-enactment of the verbatim evidence relating to Gerald Donaghey from the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. This careful examination of the transcript was totally at odds with the findings of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry (BSI) which held that Gerald Donaghey was ‘probably armed with nail bombs’ on Bloody Sunday. Saville did conclude that the shooting of Gerald could not be justified and that he was not posing a threat.

Notwithstanding, the decision, in the absence of evidence, to surmise that he ‘probably’ had nail bombs was deeply hurtful to his family, his sister Mary and niece Geraldine and wider friends and the community in Derry.  It was no surprise that Gerald’s innocence featured as the centrepiece of the latest, and surely most poignant, of the murals in the Bogside which was unveiled in 2023.

Recently more information has come to light about the so-called ‘independent’ witness that the British army relied upon to support their claim that Gerald had nail bombs.

To remind readers - the car carrying the seriously injured Gerald Donaghey was stopped by soldiers in Barrack Street. Raymond Rogan and Leo Young who accompanied him were arrested and a Corporal 150 then drove the vehicle, with Gerald’s body, to an army post at Henrietta Street and from there to the British Army post where the Foyle Railway Museum is now situated - the Bridge Camp. Gerald was the only victim on the day not to be taken directly to Altnagelvin Hospital. There are important discrepancies in the evidence about when, where and by whom the nail bombs were discovered at this location. 

The incredible claim was that Gerald had a nail bomb in each of the pockets of his tight denim jeans and one in each of the jacket pockets. No-one, including a number of civilians, the doctor who opened his jeans and examined him in the Bogside, the RUC on duty at Henrietta Street or the soldier who drove the vehicle had noticed any bulges in his pockets. In fact the soldier who drove the vehicle testified that he is certain that Gerald did NOT have nail bombs on his person.  

At Bridge Camp the allegedly ‘independent witness’ enters the scene.    

Times journalist John Chartres provided a statement to the Widgery Tribunal. He had met Lt Col Wilford and Captain (later General) Michael Jackson in Gt James Street and they invited him to listen in to army radio traffic .By his own accord he left the scene soon after and made his way, via the City Hotel, to the Bridge Camp near Craigavon Bridge where he was allowed onto the base by the Battalion press liaison officer who was also the Battalion Intelligence Officer. This same officer, who was known to him, tells him of a car containing a corpse and invites him to view the body and the nail bomb ‘as an independent witness’. Chartres claims in his statement that ‘I examined the corpse, which was in the HQ car park, and I saw a nail bomb projecting from the jacket pocket of the corpse.’ Chartres was the only ‘civilian’ witness at Widgery to claim that Gerald had nail bombs on his person. His statement raises a number of questions.  

Why would a journalist remove himself from the biggest news story in western Europe and proceed to Bridge Camp? Why, in his statement, does he not reveal that he was a retired Major in the British army? The lead story in the Times the following day, under his byline, refers to ‘reporters’, plural, being shown the nail bomb. He doesn’t reveal that HE was the reporter and he was alone.

His Widgery statement contains the following gem. He refers to CS gas canisters exploding in William Street but claims that General Ford had assured him that the army was not using gas at this stage and these were being thrown by the rioters! The same lead story refers to Gerald being stopped in a vehicle ‘on one of the routes leading from Londonderry to the Irish Republic’ when it was en route to Altnagelvin! The ghosting bodies across the border conspiracy.     

The British Army had form when it came to fabricating stories. Just 7 weeks before Bloody Sunday both the British army and RUC fabricated a story suggesting that the bomb at McGurk’s Bar in Belfast which left 15 dead was an IRA ‘own goal’. The Times reported that ‘police and Army Intelligence Officers believe that Ulster’s worst outrage, the killing of 15 people … was caused by an IRA plan that went wrong.’ The story was filed by Chartres.

When the army shot teenager Danny O’Hagan dead in the New Lodge in July 1970 Chartres reported that he was an ‘assistant petrol bomber’. Eamonn Mc Cann subsequently queried the alleged role of ‘assistant’ petrol bombers and asked whether they ’hold coats’?

Some of the above has been highlighted before in the pages of the Journal but crucially not at the Inquiry. The lie that Gerald Donaghey had nail bombs took legs at Widgery who doubtless was much impressed with this ‘civilian’ witness from the paper of record, The Times of London. However the final piece in this jigsaw puzzle only revealed itself recently. A footnote in a recent book by historian Huw Bennett, Uncivil War, refers to an article on good relations between the army and British media. The July 1971 article was from Pegasus - Journal of the Parachute Regiment. The author was John Chartres! According to Bennett the Regiment paid ‘special attention’ to Chartres, the ‘independent witness’ who claimed to see nail bombs on Gerald Donaghey.