Army
Deepcut: Pte James' Lover Told Recruit To 'Pick One Of Us'
A boyfriend of Private Cheryl James has told the inquest into her death that he gave her an 'ultimatum' the morning she died.
Paul Wilkinson said he and Cheryl had already been caught in bed by her boyfriend Simeon Carr-Minns and that he wanted the love triangle at the Surrey base to end.
Mr Wilkinson, then aged 16, told Woking Coroner's Court he spoke to Pte James, 18, about 20 minutes before hearing she had been found dead with a bullet to the head in November 1995.
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He described Pte James as "happy and laughing" and "a bit hungover" when they spoke for 45 minutes to an hour in a cabin while she was on guard duty.
Of that secret meeting, Mr Wilkinson said:
"I just remember saying 'pick one of us, if you want to be friends that would be fine if you want to stay with him.'"She said that she did not. It (the conversation) was over in a couple of minutes, she said she did not want to be with him."
Mr Wilkinson denies changing his story about what happened that morning seven times.
In a lively cross-examination Alison Foster QC, for the James family, took Mr Wilkinson through the differences in his statements he has made about the day Pte James died.
After telling him the major was certain he did not walk him away, she asked:
"Were you aware that you needed to sort out some sort of alibi?"
Mr Wilkinson said he had always said the same thing about being asked to leave, saying it is just that the officer remembers it differently.
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Ms Foster recalled a December 2002 statement in which Mr Wilkinson commented that if he had not been forced off the grounds he could have been facing a murder charge and been in prison.
Mr Wilkinson earlier denied that he got violent when he was angry.
Ms Foster pointed out that he had put someone's head through an arcade machine in the NAAFI when he thought they were laughing about Pte James's death.
Mr Wilkinson said he "had been pushed to breaking point. I think any other person would have done the same thing."
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Francesca Whitelaw, for the Ministry of Defence, noted that Mr Wilkinson has an illness which means he has poor short-term memory.
He said that everything he had told the court today was his true recollection of what he could remember.
The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.
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