Update March 2004

An independent commissioner should be appointed to monitor the army's training of recruits, a long-awaited police report into the deaths of four young soldiers said yesterday. <o:p></o:p>

The investigation, the fifth by Surrey police into the deaths at Deepcut barracks, revealed a culture of bullying and self-harm. The police called for a much broader inquiry into the extent of suicides and unexplained deaths at British military establishments and how such tragedies could be avoided. <o:p></o:p>

The Ministry of Defence yesterday refused to commit itself either to an "independent system of oversight" or to a broader inquiry. <o:p></o:p>

The police report quoted examples of a female recruit who awoke one night to find a corporal abusing her. Her supervisor laughed it off as a joke when she reported the incident. A male soldier claimed he was regularly assaulted by an officer, and a soldier seriously contemplated suicide because of bullying. <o:p></o:p>

Police also found 59 incidents of self-harm logged at Deepcut between 1996 and 2001, with 24 in 1999 alone. The army acknowledged these might represent only half the total. <o:p></o:p>

The Surrey police report follows the apparent suicide of four young soldiers, Sean Benton, 20, Cheryl James, 18, Geoff Gray, 17, and James Collinson, 17, at Deepcut between 1995 and 2002. <o:p></o:p>

Their families are not convinced the soldiers killed themselves. They want a full public inquiry into the circumstances of the deaths - a call backed by more than 200 MPs and by Amnesty International. <o:p></o:p>

Surrey police found the army had identified key areas of risk - such as inadequate supervision, failure to weed out vulnerable people at the recruitment stage, welfare and firearms training - over the past 15 years. <o:p></o:p>

But the army had failed to link the problems. It only came up with a coherent policy for reform in August 2002, when Surrey police started investigations. <o:p></o:p>

"Individual sets of recommendations and accumulating evidence of the worth of particular recommendations stretching over many years should have impelled the army to act decisively some years ago," said the police. <o:p></o:p>

"There is compelling evidence that, following the in volvement of the Deepcut families, the start of the Surrey police investigation and increasing public scrutiny, a fundamental change occurred in the army's approach to reducing risks faced by young soldiers and consequentially by the army itself." <o:p></o:p>

While the police report conceded the necessity of a robust army training regime, it also stressed the military had a duty of care to young recruits, many of whom were away from home for the first time, in barracks 24 hours a day without the support of parents or guardians. <o:p></o:p>

"More needs to be done to address areas of risk and strengthen the care regime for young soldiers in training," said Denis O'Connor, the Surrey chief constable. <o:p></o:p>

Adam Ingram, armed forces minister, said yesterday the MoD would "look carefully at what benefits a broader investigation might offer and what form such an investigation might take". <o:p></o:p>

The MoD pointed to a number of reforms it had introduced at Deepcut following the deaths, including appointment of an "empowered officer" to whom troubled recruits could complain. <o:p></o:p>

There were more instructors, recruits were now given a card with the names of welfare officers and chaplains, and instructors were trained to identify vulnerable recruits. <o:p></o:p>

But the MoD insisted young recruits had to be trained with weapons since they might go on operations as soon as they were 18. Soldiers had to be as familiar with rifles as with a "knife, fork or spoon". <o:p></o:p>

Amnesty International's UK director, Kate Allen, welcomed the police call for a broader inquiry. "It is vital that any further inquiry must be independent and must look not only at the large number of non-combat deaths in suspicious circumstances but also at whether there is a culture of systematic bullying," she said. <o:p></o:p>

The Commons defence committee announced it would carry out its own inquiry into the Deepcut deaths and the army's training procedures. <o:p></o:p>

The Labour MP Kevin McNamara, who wants a public inquiry and an independent oversight commission, said: "The common factor linking these fatalities is failure to provide for an effective investigation." <o:p></o:p>

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