Call to re-open Army death inquiries

Private Gray was one of four soldiers who died at Deepcut

A father of one of four soldiers who died at the Deepcut barracks has called for a full investigation of all recent non-combat deaths in the British Army.

Geoff Gray, whose 17-year-old son, also called Geoff, was among four young soldiers who died from gunshot wounds at the Surrey army barracks.

An independent investigator, hired by the four families after a Ministry of Defence investigation ruled the deaths were suicides, has concluded the fatal wounds were "highly unlikely" to have been self-inflicted.

The teenage private, from Seaham in County Durham, was found with bullet wounds at the barracks.

The Army claimed the deaths were suicide.

But Mr Gray says the findings of independent expert Frank Swann, have confirmed his earliest fears that his son did not take his own life.

He has now called for an inquiry into other non-combat deaths, particularly at the Catterick army base in North Yorkshire.

Mr Gray said: "There are an awful lot of non-combat deaths within the British Army.

"If we have managed to cast doubt on just four of those deaths, what is to say that other soldiers deaths across the country have been investigated as thoroughly as they should.

The deaths happened between 1995 and 2002.

"There are an enormous number of non-combat deaths at Catterick, for instance and we need to look at these.

"We know there are suicides within the Army, we know there are accidents, but there is also a doubt that these deaths have been investigated thoroughly."

Surrey Police has delayed releasing the results of its year-long investigation after receiving the report, by Mr Swann.

Mr Gray said he wants Surrey Police to launch a full murder inquiry into the deaths.

He said: "This should have been done from the start.

"The assumption was that there was a body, with bullet holes in it and a gun by the side, so it must be suicide.

"That thinking must be changed."

The dead soldiers Sean Benton, 20, from Hastings, East Sussex, 1995 Cheryl James, 18, from Llangollen, north Wales, 1995 Geoff Gray, 17, from Seaham, County Durham, 2001 James Collinson, 17, from Perth, Scotland, 2002 Timeline: Deaths at Deepcut

During the six weeks Mr Swann and his investigating team spent at the barracks with a mobile laboratory, they test-fired the weapon used in the deaths.

Mr Swann said he was not able to use the weapon to self-inflict a wound similar to the pattern of injury in the dead soldiers.

He said: "We were left with a situation in one case where the guy would have needed 15ft-long arms because you couldn't get that pattern unless you were standing 15 foot away from the person who was injured."

He said he did not know why the police did not reach the same conclusions nor could he say why the recruits died.

"We can't use emotive words like murder. We can say it's either self-inflicted, or highly likely, unlikely, et cetera.

"It is really a matter for the police, the coroner, the courts, the Crown Prosecution Service, people like that to make these decisions."

A team of 30 detectives from Surrey Police spent a year examining the deaths of the four soldiers at the barracks.