MS McDERMOTT: I suggest to you that you picked him off because you could; there was nobody else about in this area when you shot Mr Doherty in order to kill him; you say that yourself, do you remember that?
SOLDIER F: As I said in my statement, I shouted there was a gunman down there and that is when I went to the wall and fired at a gunman.
Q. I do not ask for it to be put up, but in your statement to Colonel Overbury, you say: “He was the only person in the area from which the gunfire had come. Indeed, I suggest that you are half right about that; he was certainly the only person in that area when you shot him. You were not under any threat from him or anybody else, I suggest to you. You shot him just because you were able to do it?
A. That is not —
Q. In through the buttock, out through the heart, one shot, he never moved again. You are an experienced rifleman and gunman; are you not?
A. A gunman.
Q. You were then and certainly in all the years that you spent in the Army since, you are very experienced at shooting?
A. I had experience in many things.
Q. Is shooting one of them?
A. That is one of the —
Q. Sorry?
A. That is one of the points, yes.
Q. That was a cowardly shot; was it not?
A. I do not agree with that.
Q. You cannot remember anything about it?
A. I am just referring to your question.
Q. Do you know anything about hunting?
A. Hunting?
Q. Hunting animals?
A. Something about them, yes.
Q. Do you ever engage in that yourself?
A. What, now?
Q. At any time?
A. I used to, yes.
Q. It is a well-known hunting shot, is it not, the shot that you used to shoot Mr Doherty dead?
A. Which shot are you referring to?
Q. A Texas heart shot; have you ever heard of that?
A. No, I have not heard of that one, no.
Q. The sort of shot that you take if you can get no other kind of shot?
A. Normally —
Q. A cheap shot?
A. Normally on a hunting shot you shoot to kill the animal, to cause less pain and less damage, to put the animal out of its misery, you do not just shoot anywhere.
Q. That is the way you shot Mr Doherty, was it not, as if you were hunting him down like an animal?
A. That is not correct.
Paddy Doherty, beloved husband of Eileen and father of 6 children – Murdered by Soldier F
