Deepcut inquest: Soldier denies having sex with Private Cheryl James

Private Ian Atkinson said he and 18-year-old Private James had only ever "kissed - that was it" and this happened on just one occasion.

The inquest into Private James's death in November 1995 has been told by fellow squaddie Mark Beards that Sergeant Andrew Gavaghan had ordered her to go into a room with Private Atkinson to have sex the night before she died.

Describing it as a "drunken kiss", Private Atkinson told Woking Coroner's Court: "We kissed - that was it. It never went any further. It was just a kiss. It was a week or two before the death of Cheryl.

"We had been down the Naafi, down the bar. We had a drink and all that but it never went any further."

Private James was one of four recruits to die at the Army training camp in Surrey over a seven-year period.

Private Atkinson said he was "shocked" when he heard about Mr Beards's allegations for the first time last year as preparations were being made for this inquest.

He told the court: "I do not know why he would do that or what he was thinking."

Asked by Nicholas Moss, for the Ministry of Defence, about the allegations, he said: "I could not believe it. I was shocked. I really did not know why he has done this. We kissed, that was all that happened. It never went any further and it never happened again."

Mr Moss asked: "What is your view about men who coerce women into sex?"

Private Atkinson replied: "I do not like it."

Private Atkinson said he and Mr Beards, who left the Army in 1996, "were not best friends by any means" and that he considered him to be someone who was "fairly new and just latched on".

Earlier Private Atkinson told the court that he and Private James had gone their separate ways because "there was nothing there" and that she "did not want anything else to happen".

He described Private James as a "quiet girl, quite keen to get on".

He also said he had heard that Private James was seeing someone from a different barracks and she had slept with another Deepcut soldier called Private Paul Wilkinson.

The inquest into the death of Provatye James, from Llangollen in North Wales, parents continues.