BRITISH: A former British army instructor was jailed for 4½ years yesterday for sexually assaulting young male recruits at a barracks where four other soldiers died, prompting parents to renew calls for a probe into the deaths.
The Deepcut training barracks in Surrey in southern England where the former instructor Leslie Skinner was based, was notorious for the mysterious shooting deaths of four young recruits between 1995 and 2002.
Parents have said they believe the army covered up bullying and abuse there. During Skinner's trial it emerged that, despite a previous court martial conviction for a sexual offence, Skinner had not been expelled from the army.
A police investigation found no link between his offences and the four deaths. But the Skinner case has renewed pressure on the government to hold a public inquiry into the deaths and bullying in the ranks.
The Ministry of Defence said: "There is no culture of bullying or abuse in the British army. These are isolated cases."
Parents of the young soldiers who were found shot dead at Deepcut have never accepted official explanations. Coroners ruled one of the deaths a suicide, recorded open verdicts in two and have yet to rule on the fourth.
"It's not just Deepcut, the whole of the British army needs looking at," said Ms Diane Gray, whose son, Geoff, had two gunshot wounds to the head. "The Skinner case is just the tip of the iceberg and it needs to be looked at," she said outside Kingston Crown Court.