Published Sunday, 17 October 2010
The leading human rights lawyer, who has been involved in some of the most famous cases in recent legal history, represented a number of families during the long-running inquiry.
Thirteen marchers were shot dead on 30 January 1972 in Derry when British paratroopers opened fire on crowds at a civil rights demonstration.
Fourteen others were wounded, one of whom later died.
The Saville Report was heavily critical of the Army and found that soldiers fired the first shot.
Asked if the 12-year inquiry was worth it, Mr Mansfield said: "If you ask any of the families, they felt, quite rightly, that the truth about what happened in 1972 when people died on the streets of Derry, shot by British military forces, had never been uncovered."
"It took a long time, it certainly did, but it was worth every penny because it wasn't dealing with an isolated incident."
"He had in fact, Lord Saville, a remit much broader than that, it was part of the peace process at that time looking back at what had happened in the 20 years before that, which had led to this situation where British troops were effectively occupying the streets in this way and led to the shooting."
"Now that's an enormous task, if you were a mother, or a father or a relative and you had had your relatives murdered, you would want that to be recognised."
The 69-year-old, who has been a lawyer for more than 40 years, said the end of the inquiry in which criticism was levelled at the Army was highly emotional for him.
He explained: "This was a moment that they had waited for and there was emotion welling up in all of them and for me probably, it was the most moving day of 42 years."
Mr Mansfield's past clients include the Orgreave miners who were unjustly accused of rioting during the strike in 1984 and the Birmingham Six, who were released in 1991, nearly sixteen years after being wrongly convicted.
He disclosed that as a boy he had helped his mother campaign for his local MP - former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Mr Mansfield, who recently represented the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, who died after being shot on a tube train by police marksmen, said he had come to understand through his cases why some people took extreme action such as terrorism.
He explained: "I don't applaud and I don't support any kind of violent terrorism anywhere in the world, I'm not somebody who has ever done that."
"On the other hand I do understand the origins of a lot of what makes people, in the end."
"Often it's not mindless - there is a political background, it doesn't justify but it does explain."