Bloody Sunday rifle sent to Sierra Leone

The Sunday Times carries details of a remarkable claim by Colonel Tim Collins in his  new autobiography:

Collins gives us a few unsettling examples of his sometimes inappropriate sense of humour, and he can be disarmingly honest. As SAS operations’ officer, for instance, he helped organise the dramatic Special Forces mission in Sierra Leone that rescued a group of Royal Irish soldiers captured by the West Side Boys terrorist gang. In an anecdotal footnote, he says that 1 Para recovered a former British Army SLR rifle from the gang. The serial number revealed that it had been used by 1 Para on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry 1972. The footnote adds that the rifle had been declared destroyed when the Saville inquiry into the shootings asked for it. (Sunday Times)

The review also notes that Collins, a former Royal Irish Regiment officer, who became famous for his speech at the outset of the War in Iraq, is now working in the country for Aegis Defence Services.