Officer commanding Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday dies aged 90

An obituary in The Times newspaper states the 90-year-old former lieutenant colonel, Derek Wilford, had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Thirteen people were shot dead and several more injured when the Paras opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside on January 30, 1972.

Although the Saville Inquiry found that all of those killed were unarmed, Lt Colonel Wilford always maintained that his troops were fired on prior to opening fire.

In 2010, the then prime minister David Cameron told the Commons: "What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong."

In 2019, speaking to the BBC, Wilford was asked if he accepted the findings in the Saville Report.

He said: "No, I don't, because I was there. We were under attack and we will actually remain convinced of that actually to the end of our days."

In a statement on Monday, Bloody Sunday Trust chairman Tony Doherty, whose father was killed on Bloody Sunday, said: “The passing of Derek Wilford, while felt by his family, will not be mourned by the families of the innocent men and boys whose lives were taken by armed British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday.

“Colonel Wilford lived in a constant state of denial, never once accepting any measure of responsibility for his actions on that fateful day.

“History, though, will ensure that his actions led directly to the deaths of many innocent people which, in turn, led to years of conflict and hardship for our communities.”

Mr Doherty added: “He left a terrible legacy and will rightly be remembered for that.”

Responding to the Bloody Sunday Trust comments, and addressing the legacy of Lt Col Wilford, former army officer Colonel Richard Kemp said: “It’s a very difficult one. I think he accepted that, as the overall commanding officer of the regiment, that he was responsible for their actions, but I think he kind of doubted whether or not what they did was as inexcusable as most other people seemed to think it was.

"He didn’t deny that his orders had led to what happened”.

Mr Kemp told the BBC’s Evening Extra programme: “It was a black day for the British Army, and of course it was a tragic day for Northern Ireland”.

Liam Wray, who lost his brother James, 22, on Bloody Sunday, told the BBC: “For his family, I understand there’ll be sorrow.

“I take no delight in his death, but I’ll not be shedding any tears either.”

An immediate inquiry after Bloody Sunday, led by then-lord chief justice Lord Widgery, was described as a whitewash after it largely cleared the soldiers of blame.

After years of campaigning by victims’ families, then-prime minister Tony Blair ordered a new inquiry in 1998. The Saville Inquiry concluded in 2010 that none of the casualties were posing a threat or doing anything that would justify their shooting.