Inquest of female Army officer cadet found hanged at Sandhurst to begin

An inquest into the death of a female Army officer cadet who was found hanged in her room at the prestigious Sandhurst military academy is set to begin.

Olivia Perks, 21, was discovered dead at the elite military training school in Berkshire on 6 February 2019.

An earlier inquest hearing recorded her provisional cause of death as "asphyxia due to hanging".

A later pre-inquest review heard she fell victim to alleged "gross sexual misconduct" by senior soldiers before she died.

The full inquest is expected to focus on three events in the run-up to Ms Perks' death: a Royal Engineers visit; a trip to Normandy; and the Falklands Ball on 1 February 2019.

It is expected to seek to establish her past medical history, previous self-harm, and how her suicide risk was managed, as well as the investigation into events following the charity ball, events on the day she died, including whether there was evidence of "intention", and her cause of death.

Messages from her phone will also be considered as evidence.

"Pen portraits" of Ms Perks produced by her mother Louise and father Ian are due to be read to the inquest.

Assistant coroner for Berkshire Alison McCormick, who will preside over the hearing, has told the family she hopes their loved one will get the "full, fair and fearless" inquest that "she deserves".

She also said the hearing would be an "independent fact-finding mission" and not a critique of the Army's investigation into the death.

The inquest is listed for 12 days from Monday but is not expected to sit on consecutive days.

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