{"id":97163,"date":"2025-10-01T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97163\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:35:08","slug":"victim-pretended-to-be-dead-after-being-shot-on-bloody-sunday-soldier-f-trial-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97163\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim pretended to be dead after being shot on Bloody Sunday, Soldier F trial hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A man injured on Bloody Sunday has told a trial how he pretended to be dead while lying on the pavement after he was shot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Joe Mahon also said he saw a soldier fire shots at another victim who was on the ground before saying \u201cI\u2019ve got another one\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Members of the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 civilians in Derry after a civil rights march in January 1972.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">An Army veteran, identified only as Soldier F, has been charged with the murders of two men killed on Bloody Sunday, James Wray and William McKinney.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He is also charged with five attempted murders during the incident in the city\u2019s Bogside area, including Mr Mahon, Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Patrick O\u2019Donnell and a person unknown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He has pleaded not guilty to the seven counts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He sits in the dock at Belfast Crown Court behind a curtain during each day of the non-jury trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Giving evidence when the trial resumed on Wednesday, Mr Mahon told the court he was 16 at the time and had attended the civil rights march in Derry on Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said he went to Glenfada Park after becoming aware of disturbances and hearing that people had been shot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said he saw a small number of soldiers enter Glenfada Park North where a large group of people had gathered. He said he saw one soldier with a rifle under his arm open fire in the direction of people in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Mahon said there was a \u201cjam\u201d as people tried to run away. He said: \u201cWe were trying the gates of a couple of houses to get into the yards but they were locked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He then told the trial that he found himself on the ground. He said: \u201cI thought I was hit by a rubber bullet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI know it might sound funny but when you see someone getting shot on TV, they are rolling about in pain, I wasn\u2019t that way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI heard a voice beside me. There was a gentleman to my right lying on the road. He says \u2018I am hit\u2019. The way I was lying he was halfway down my chest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The court was told that Mr McKinney and Mr Wray were lying close to Mr Mahon after they were shot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Asked about the movements of soldiers, Mr Mahon said: \u201cI saw one walking across the square, walking towards the square to where we were lying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said it was the same soldier he had earlier seen opening fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added: \u201cHe walked past me and Mr McKinney.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI heard a voice calling \u2018pretend you are dead\u2019. I must have moved, I didn\u2019t know I was shot at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI still thought it was a rubber bullet, I was going to try and get up and run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI lay and let on I was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Mahon said Mr Wray then moved and the soldier fired at him on the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said the soldier then left the area before returning. He said he heard the soldier say: \u201cI\u2019ve got another one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Mahon said that shortly afterwards he lifted his head and the soldier saw him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said: \u201cHe knelt down in the middle of the square and aimed his rifle at me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI turned my head away towards the fence, after what happened to Jim Wray, I expected the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI turned my head waiting to be shot and I heard a voice shouting \u2018first aid, don\u2019t shoot\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Mahon told the trial that members of the public had carried him from the square.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A bullet had entered his right pelvis and he spent several weeks in hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The trial is expected to hear evidence from other witnesses who were shot on Bloody Sunday later on Wednesday. &#8211; PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man injured on Bloody Sunday has told a trial how he pretended to be dead while lying&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[45955,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-97163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bloody-sunday","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}