Private Cheryl James' family 'deeply saddened' by coroner's verdict of suicide

Speaking outside Woking Coroner's Court, Des James, with his wife Doreen at his side, said: "While we welcome the coroner's findings today on the environment at Deepcut, we are deeply saddened by the coroner's conclusions, having sat through all of the evidence ourselves, listened carefully to every word, read every statement and re-read every testimony.

"In short, it's our opinion that it did not lead to this verdict."

But he said that despite their "immense disappointment" at the ruling that she took her own life, the family believed the inquest had achieved "a great deal".

He said: "It has finally exposed to public scrutiny the deeply toxic environment in which she and hundreds of other young soldiers were forced to live."

Mr James added: "The evidence has revealed serious and profound failures in the care and supervision that ought to have been provided to her and to all the other young people that joined up with her.

"Deepcut was a toxic and horrible environment for a young woman and we have no doubt that this would have had a terrible impact on those that were required to live in it.

"We recognise that Cheryl, like so many teenagers, struggled in certain aspects of her life and had suffered some sad experiences. But she had overcome these and was doing well."

Mr James said the evidence showed she was her "usual happy self" in her final days and hours, with preoccupations that were nothing out of the norm for a teenage girl.

But he said that the inquest had come "20 years too late" for her final hours and moments.

And Mr James said the "serious and inexplicable omissions and contradictions about some evidence", and certain individuals being "less than truthful", left them "very surprised that the coroner had sufficient evidence to be satisfied that Cheryl took her own life".

He said: "This was the path urged upon him by the MoD and Surrey Police from the very start and we are so sorry to see that their efforts - motivated we believe in large part by reputation management and damage limitation - appear to have prevailed."

Pte James was stationed at Deepcut Barracks when she was found dead with a bullet wound to the head on November 27 1995.

She was one of four young recruits to die at the Army training camp over seven years.

A fresh inquest was ordered into her death after High Court judges quashed an open verdict recorded in December 1995.

The inquest had heard that sexual promiscuity and heavy drinking was rife at Deepcut.

Instructors and officers flouted Army rules and had sexual relationships with the young recruits, and some instructors "saw young females as a sexual challenge".

Mr Barker launched a scathing attack on welfare standards at Deepcut, saying the general culture of the base fell below the standard expected and the "haphazard provision of welfare support was insufficient".

There were also far too few officers to look after and train young recruits.

While he thanked Brigadier John Donnelly, the Army's head of personal services, for his apology on behalf of the Ministry of Defence for the Army's failings over so many years, he said it only came because they had been "caught out".

Mr James said: "The evidence as a whole has revealed a brutal and morally chaotic environment, particularly for young women...

"Their admissions and their apology could have been delivered years ago - it's been 10 years since the Blake Review and 20 years since Cheryl died.

"We consider it a remarkable coincidence that their apology was ready to be delivered on the first day of Cheryl's inquest.

"I cannot avoid making the suggestion that this was more a strategic ploy than a gesture of genuine remorse. To quote my grandmother, 'you're not sorry for what you've done, you're sorry you've been caught out'."

Mr James also criticised Surrey Police and accused them of having worked to "unashamedly pursue a suicide verdict".

He said: "Any evidence that would tend to suggest a cause of death other than suicide was ignored or undermined; anything that would tend to suggest suicide actively pursued."

And he said the "profound failures" by the force's inadequate investigation at the time of his daughter's death "in many ways explain why we are still here 20 years later".

Mr James said: "Whatever actually happened in that final hour of Cheryl's life, we may never know.

"What we do know is that if she had not been ordered to guard the gate armed and alone, she would still be alive today."

He said it was "deeply regrettable" that the experiences of other young women and men at Deepcut were ruled out of scope at the inquest.

And he added: "My wife and I feel privileged to have been Cheryl's parents. Almost every witness referred to her as happy, smiling, bubbly, fun, generous and kind.

"We love her dearly, we miss her every day and we always will. It is so hard to accept that we delivered her to that awful camp where we truly believed she would be safe from harm...

"We can only hope something good will come of this horrific journey but as of today, we cannot be sure of that."