Cheryl James: Deepcut inquest set to hear verdict

Cheryl's parents Des and Doreen James, from Llanymynech, near Oswestry, have spent the last 20 years fighting for the truth about what happened to their 18-year-old daughter.

She was the second of four recruits to be found shot dead at the training camp in Surrey between 1995 and 2002.

All four families have challenged the way the deaths were investigated.

The Army has always maintained that Cheryl committed suicide but her parents argued there wasn't a thorough investigation and have questioned whether the culture at the base at the time may have contributed to Cheryl's death.

On Friday they will be return to Woking Coroners Court to hear the verdict.

Last night the couple spoke on the BBC Wales Week In Week Out programme.

Doreen James told the show: "If it is your child you fight to the end. That's what any parent does. I am hoping now this will have made a pathway for those parents. They need to know there's some help out there, they will get justice eventually."

Cheryl's father Des added: "I have every respect for the judge and it is possible for us to acknowledge we have gone as far as we can, given what we have."

Madeleine Moon the Labour MP for Bridgend, who is a member of the Commons Defence Select committee, said she wants the Defence Secretary to ask the Army and Surrey police about what happened to soldiers who were accused by other recruits of rape, sexual and physical assaults and bullying at base between 1995 and 2002.

The allegations were contained in a dossier prepared by Surrey Police when officers re-investigated the four deaths at the camp in 2002.

Calls for an independent public inquiry into events at Deepcut have been rejected over the years.

At this inquest Judge Brian Barker said it was not appropriate for the wider allegations and issues to be heard.

Mr and Mrs James had to go to the High Court to win a second inquest. The first, which was held three weeks after Cheryl's death in 1995, returned an open verdict but an Army Board of Inquiry a few weeks later concluded it was suicide.

The family argued there was insufficient evidence to come to that conclusion and after years of campaigning, they won the right to a new inquest and asked for Cheryl's body to be exhumed in a last-ditch attempt to get more forensic evidence.

They are asking Coroner Judge Barker to consider whether Cheryl may have been shot by someone else, or if she took her own life, could the culture at the camp have contributed to it.

At the start of this inquest Brigadier John Donnelly, the Army's Head of Personal Services, apologised to the Jameses for past failings at Deepcut. He admitted Cheryl should not have been ordered to stand guard alone with a weapon because that contravened Army orders. He also said some NCOs had exceeded their authority by handing out guard duty as a punishment.