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A WARPED bigot has launched a sickening sectarian attack on the memory of Bloody Sunday priest Dr Edward Daly.

Allan Woods branded Daly, who died on Monday aged 82, a “lying IRA-supporting b*****d”.

He also used a grossly offensive term for Catholics to describe the priest.

Woods added: “Good riddance to the piece of IRA scum” and said he hoped the respected cleric would “rot in hell”.

Daly waved a bloodied white handkerchief as a symbol of ceasefire as he tried to help a fatally injured youth at the 1972 Civil Rights protest in Derry.

British paratroopers had opened fire and killed 13 people. Fourteen were injured and another was to die later.

(Image: BBC)

Woods claims to have served in the Paras and to have been on duty as an 18-year-old that day.

His rantings will disgust people on both sides in Northern Ireland who held Daly in the highest regard.

Daly began serving as a priest in Derry in 1962 before becoming the city’s bishop in 1974. He stood down in 1993 after a stroke.

He spent his life working for peace and campaigned against all forms of violence.

But Woods bizarrely claimed on social media: “Watch the footage closely, he was concealing a weapon in the sleeve of his left arm as he led the wounded to an ambulance.

“He also made a statement that not even a stone was thrown at British troops. We were pelted with bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and finally bullets.”

The bigot also slurred Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, writing: “Just wait for knickerless Sturgeon to send her condolences.”

Woods is a bus driver who works for Park’s of Hamilton on a casual basis through an agency. The firm supply coaches to Celtic and Rangers and are owned by Rangers director Douglas Park.

The Record understands Woods will not drive for the firm again after his outburst.

A spokesman said: “When this was brought to the company’s attention, an investigation was launched immediately.

“It is being treated with the utmost gravity and as a matter of urgency.”

It is not the first time Woods has found himself at the centre of a bigotry row.

The Rangers fan made headlines last year after offering to recruit free workers to spruce up Ibrox.

But it then emerged he had posted on Facebook in October 2014 calling for the ethnic cleansing of Muslims.

Another post on his page in 2015 called for Islam to be outlawed, and made lurid claims linking the religion to rape and paedophilia.

We tried to speak to Woods at his home in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, yesterday. His wife said he wasn’t available.

Daly was a young cleric in Derry on Bloody Sunday. He was near John “Jackie” Duddy, 17, when he was shot and helped attempt to carry him to safety under fire.

David Cameron apologised to all the Bloody Sunday victims on behalf of the UK in 2010 after the 12-year Savile inquiry blamed the Army for the civilian deaths.

Savile found that the soldiers fired first and gave no warning.

Daly was awarded the freedom of Derry last year, alongside his Church of Ireland counterpart.

Former civil rights leader Hugh McMonagle, who was with him on Bloody Sunday, has called for him to be made a saint.