A WATCHDOG has demanded police review its probe into the death of a Scots RAF firefighter at an Oxfordshire barracks.
Senior aircraftsman Robert Fleeting, of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, was found dead in his room at RAF Benson on September 4, 2011.
A coroner's inquest into the death of the 24-year old, who was engaged, ruled he took his own life after having sex with gay medic Ryan Charlton and struggling with his sexuality.
But Robert's parents Charlie, 51, and Susan, 53, asked police to investigate after speaking to a serviceman's wife who said her husband had told her he had contributed to their son's death.
They lodged a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission over the handling of the case by Thames Valley Police.
His parents say the claims include allegations that he was "beasted" – an informal military punishment – the day before his death.
The commission responded to the family's request saying their "appeal is upheld and will be subject to further investigation by TVP".
Mrs Fleeting said the account of her son's death the East Kilbride family has been told is "just so unbelievable", adding: "We still have so many questions that remain unanswered and we are glad to see this has now been sent back to Thames Valley Police for them to investigate."
A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "Thames Valley Police was instructed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission yesterday to review a number of areas of its initial investigation into the death of Robert Fleeting, who died at RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, on 4 September, 2011."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article