Army
Deepcut: Former Police Inspector Apologises To Cheryl's Family
A former police inspector has apologised to the family of Deepcut soldier Private Cheryl James about the limited investigation into her death.
The 18-year-old recruit was discovered with a fatal bullet wound on 27th November, 1995 - one of four young soldiers to die at the training camp in Surrey over a seven-year period.
Private Sean Benton died in June 1995, aged 20. Private Geoff Gray was 17 when he was found dead in September 2001. Private James Collinson, also 17, was found dead in March 2002. All four died from gunshot wounds.
Surrey Police had decided there were "no suspicious circumstances" surrounding her death within around two hours of officers arriving at the scene, the inquest at Surrey Coroners Court in Woking was told.
Former Inspector Michael Day arrived at 9.04am and handed the investigation over to the coroner and military at 11.12am, without inspecting the body or weapon himself.
He apologised to Pte James's family today and added:
"Hindsight is a wonderful thing and if I had to make that decision again I would have without a doubt taken a different course of action."
"There appeared to be no suspicious circumstances and therefore, as a result of that, in conjunction with officers present and the coroner's officer, I made the decision that we would leave it to a coronial investigation and military police would support that investigation rather than Surrey Police."
He said there were no suspicious circumstances "in terms of the position of the body and things around it".
He added that letters found in Cheryl's quarters "suggested that she was troubled over things" but admitted there was never a suggestion of any suicide note.
Alison Foster QC, representing the family, accused Mr Day of basing his decision on a "set of assumptions" without a proper investigation of the scene.
She added: "By about 11.12am a decision had been reached that this was not a suspicious death, in other words it was a suicide.
"At that point there was no fingerprint evidence taken from the gun. No swabs taken of Cheryl James's hands or face. No fingertip search of the area around the body before it was moved. No ballistics testing of any cartridge case."
She added: "You couldn't be sure that the gun beside Cheryl fired the fatal bullet."
"From what I was told I was satisfied that was the weapon that had been involved. From what I knew or read there was a bullet missing from the gun."
He did not examine the body, weapon or scene himself and said he relied on information from scene-of-crime experts and his CID officer. Ms Foster continued:
"Without any investigation or independence of mind you were prepared to take from military personnel at the scene... you were prepared to take their conclusions and assumptions.""Yes I did take their conclusions", Mr Day replied.
Paul Davidson, a former Ministry of Defence police officer, said there was no cordon and "no control" around the body when he attended the scene.
"There was no cordon in place at all," he added.
"Everyone was just walking around, there seemed to be no control."
The rifle found beside Pte James's body was put back into service months after her death, the inquest was told.
Michael Burrows, a former armourer at Deepcut, said he inspected the gun at the scene and made it safe.
"The weapon was lying on the ground next to the body. One of her hands was partially on the weapon."
He added that the position of a rifle's hammer was "consistent" with it having been discharged but did not mean it had definitely been fired.
After a second inspection for any faults, the gun was sealed inside an evidence bag in the armoury ready for any forensic or ballistics testing but no further tests were carried out, he said.
Mr Burrows was told to clean the weapon because it was going back into service "a few months later".
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