[A-List] UK military: mortality problem

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Deepcut parents attack 'culture of secrecy'
More families of victims sign up to back campaign

JAMES McKILLOP
The Herald, 30 October 2002

THE families of four young soldiers who died while stationed at Deepcut
barracks yesterday called for an immediate public inquiry and accused the
armed services and the Ministry of Defence of overseeing a "culture of
secrecy".

Documents on the deaths of four recruits while on guard duty at the barracks
in Surrey, including James Collinson, 17, from Perth, were destroyed and
conflicting statements were made as part of a prolonged campaign to withhold
the truth, the parents claimed.

Jim Collinson, 40, father of James said: "The MoD wouldn't come forward and
explain what happened to our son that night.

"Three days after his funeral I phoned up a senior officer at Deepcut and
asked him how the investigation was going. He replied: 'One body, one gun,
draw your own conclusion'."

The incidents have sparked a massive response from relatives of 1748
soldiers who have died from non-natural causes since 1990. The relatives
feel the Army has failed to explain how their loved ones died.

John Cooper, a barrister representing many of the families, said an
application would be made to the High Court for a judicial review that could
lead to the reopening of inquests into the deaths of scores of soldiers in
mysterious circumstances within the UK.

Mr Collinson added: "We have never got the truth from the Army over what
happened. It just seems impossible that having had a meal with my wife
Yvonne during which he had spoken about buying a new car and how he was
looking forward to a holiday in Spain he would hours later turn his SA80
rifle on himself."

Getting information out of the MoD over the death of his son was similar to
getting blood from a stone, he claimed.

Referring to the 'one body, one gun' comment of the Deepcut officer, Mr
Collinson said: "That was their attitude. James was just a number...a number
that no longer existed and they were not interested any more.

"There needs to be a proper investigation right from the start as soon as
the young ones are found. It should start then and not two or three hours
later and that is why we want a public inquiry now."

Asked who should be in charge of the immediate investigation, Mr Collinson
was in no doubt. "Civilian police," he said.

Mr Collinson and his wife agreed that the body of their son could be exhumed
to assist a renewed Surrey police investigation into the deaths of James and
Geoff Gray, 17, Cheryl James, 18, and Sean Benton, 20.

Police are to employ psychological profiling to assess each soldier's state
of mind to see if suicide was likely.

They will also use 3D-imaging to reconstruct the last known movement of the
soldiers in an attempt to uncover new leads.

However, Mr Cooper said the families were far from satisfied that it was
being conducted by Surrey police.

Officers from Surrey were in effect being asked to reinvestigate inquiries
originally conducted by their own colleagues.

Another force should have been brought in to conduct the fresh inquiries, he
said.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said the public
inquiry into Deepcut should happen as soon as possible.

The MoD insisted that they had nothing to hide.

-----

Doubts on Deepcut
Families deserve a public inquiry into deaths
Editorial, The Herald, 30 October 2002

FOR all that the four had signed up to fight for queen and country they were
no more than youngsters. James Collinson and Geoff Gray were 17. Cheryl
James was 18, and Sean Benton was 20. All died, not on a battlefield, but at
Deepcut barracks in Surrey. Their employer, the Army, says they took their
own lives. Their parents disagree. For them, only a public inquiry - for
which they lobbied MPs yesterday at Westminster - can lay to rest fears that
the deaths might have stemmed from bullying and harassment, or, worse, foul
play.

The facts so far are astonishing. In June, 1995, Private Benton, from
Hastings, was found with five bullet wounds to his chest. Ballistics tests
suggested only one bullet was fired from close range. Suicide, said the
Army. In November, 1995, Private James, from Llangollen, was found with a
bullet through her forehead. The Army said suicide; a coroner recorded an
open verdict. In September 2001, Private Gray, from London, was found with
two gunshot wounds to his head. Suicide, said the Army; a coroner recorded
an open verdict. In March this year, Private Collinson, from Perth, died
from a single gunshot wound. Suicide, said the Army; a happy young man with
no reason to take his own life, said his parents. Surrey Police, who
initially accepted the assumptions of suicide and left military police to
investigate, have now taken charge of the inquiries into all four deaths.
The families have complained that another force should have been called in
to review the case, as is usual when an investigation is judged to have been
flawed. It is just one of a number of misjudgments and errors surrounding
the case. The Army, for example, has admitted that it destroyed some of the
bloodied uniforms of the soldiers, and the post-mortem examinations were
carried out by consultant pathologists, not the Home Office pathologists
usually used in cases of suspicious death.

The Army is acutely sensitive to claims that bullying was commonplace in the
barracks, or that it has covered up the truth. For his part, Geoff Hoon, the
defence secretary, is waiting for the results of the police inquiry. In the
meantime, rules have been changed so that police will take automatic charge
of investigations into the untimely deaths of soldiers, and the Ministry of
Defence has promised a review of training procedures. It is a start, but it
is nowhere near what the families, and the most basic notions of justice,
merit. Had four young people died in disputed circumstances in any other
occupation there would have been official outrage and inquiries aplenty. But
the MoD is different, is it not? No.

The deaths at Deepcut were not isolated occurrences. In the past 12 years
there have been 1748 fatalities on Army bases. It is time the military
establishment was more candid about their causes. Secrecy is to a great
extent essential to the armed forces. Yet the MoD has too often used it as a
shield to deflect reasonable requests for information, whether it be on
Chinook or Deepcut. It is also home to a culture of intransigence, of
impermeability, which may be essential on the battlefield, but appears
uncaring on Civvy Street. The Deepcut parents are not threats to the defence
of the realm. They are mothers and fathers who cannot begin to grieve
properly until doubt has been removed about how their children died. A
public inquiry is the least their country owes them.