Coroner to relook at Deepcut deaths

New facts into Sean's death by gunshot wounds at the Deepcut barracks eight years ago have been passed onto the coroner by Surrey Police. He will decide whether to reopen the case, which was recorded as a suicide at the time.

However, the police said in an announcement last Friday that there was no evidence for criminal investigations into his case or the three other soldiers who died in mysterious circumstances at the barracks between 1995 and 2001.

Sean's parents, Harry and Linda Benton, this week repeated their request for a new inquest and a public inquiry.

They said: "We didn't expect the outcome to be any different to what we heard and we just hope we get an inquest or a public inquiry or both."

The police's inquiry into the Deepcut deaths lasted 15 months and cost 1million.

Surrey Police deputy chief constable, Bob Quick, said: "During the course of our investigation we have seen 900 witnesses and taken over 1,500 evidential statements. We have also commissioned two full forensic and ballistics investigations, and a third is being compiled by an independent expert.

"While we cannot publicly discuss this evidence prior to the inquest we are hopeful that it will throw significant new light on how and why each of these young soldiers died."

Surrey Police did make several recommendations for how army deaths should be dealt with in the future.

The report also criticised the supervision of young officers at Deepcut, saying there was at times too many trainees and not enough supervisors. It added that army selection processes were unable to identify all potentially vulnerable trainees and recommended they should improve procedures for dealing with individuals who pose a risk to themselves or others.

Deputy Chief Constable Quick said: "We hope that what we have found will help to prevent other tragic deaths in the future."

Frank Swann, the independent ballistics expert working on the Deepcut cases on behalf of the families is planning to hand his full report into the deaths at the end of October. His findings are expected to differ with the police report.