A soldier reported an officer to military police after claiming he was asked to help "change" statements about an Army test march in which a colleague died, an inquest has heard.

Corporal Joshua Hoole, of 1 Rifles and described as "fit, capable and determined", died within an hour of collapsing on a hot day during an annual fitness test (AFT) at Brecon, Wales, on July 19 2016.

Cpl Hoole, of Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway, died three years after three Army reservists suffered fatal heat illness during an SAS selection march in the Brecon Beacons.

On Monday, an inquest into Cpl Hoole's death heard from another soldier, Corporal George Knight, who collapsed with a suspected "heat injury" earlier on the same march.

At Birmingham Coroner's Court, Cpl Knight told how about an hour into the AFT he was "struggling to focus and felt sick", before collapsing.

He said: "I remember falling into the hedge and literally, immediately, one of the corporals jumped on me straight away, opened my shirt and started pouring water on me, cooling me down."

Cpl Knight recalled being in the hedge for up to 20 minutes and was so "confused" he was unable to recognise a close colleague, or say what day it was.

The soldier was then asked about what the senior coroner Louise Hunt called "a difficult matter", relating to the incident, involving the officer running the march, Captain Colin Newfer.

The inquest heard that in July 2018, Cpl Knight claimed he had been on a classroom course with Capt Newfer when the officer called him into his office for "a conversation" about some soldiers' statements.

That contact, and later WhatsApp messages which the corporal also claimed Capt Newfer sent, prompted Cpl Knight to report the matter to the Royal Military Police (RMP), he told the coroner.

Cpl Knight said: "I thought, I shouldn't be having these people's statements."

The corporal alleged the officer handed him seven pages of different soldiers' statements, relating to how he had come to withdraw from the test march.

Asked what Capt Newfer said to him in his office, Cpl Knight told the inquest: "He told me to find out who was writing them - whose statements they were."

The coroner, reading back Cpl Knight's original witness statement about the incident, said: "He told me what persons had put in their statements had been wrong and I had not fallen into the bush and that he had laid me on my side."

In court, Cpl Knight responded: "If it's in the statement, then that's right."

He then said: "From what I took from it, he told me to read them and then find out who had put this or said this and try and get them to change it.

"I stand by that."

Ms Hunt replied: "I think he (Captain Newfer) will dispute that, but that's what you are telling me?"

"Yes," he replied.

Cpl Knight then said that having gone away with the statements he "never looked at them", and it was only when Capt Newfer allegedly sent him "WhatsApp messages" he decided to speak to the military police.

"The next contact was WhatsApp messages," said Cpl Knight.

"He literally text me out of the blue."

Cpl Knight added he felt it was "wrong to talk about that".

"That's when I told the Royal Military Police and Special Investigation Branch about it."

Ms Hunt then read Capt Newfer's written account of how Cpl Knight came to be withdrawn from the march, though he is set to give evidence to the inquest later this week.

The officer said Cpl Knight was "struggling on the hill" and had already had the last of his "two warnings" to rejoin the main march group.

"When I looked at his face it was enough to confirm my decision to pull him off the AFT," the account concluded.

But in court, Cpl Knight said: "He (Capt Newfer) never told me that, I dispute that."

Barrister Fiona Eadington, representing Capt Newfer, asked if Cpl Knight recalled the officer had merely mentioned to him that he was "making a service complaint and that your statement wasn't accurate", when they were in the office.

Cpl Knight replied: "I don't remember that."

He was then asked if he recalled "Captain Newfer pulling you out of the AFT squad and propping you up against the hedge?"

But the junior non-commissioned officer replied: "As far as I know, as I can remember it, I never got propped up against any sort of hedge."

Earlier, Lance Corporal James Burge, who was withdrawn from the march before Cpl Knight, was asked by the coroner about differences between two statements he made, relating to Capt Newfer.

In a statement in September 2016, L/Cpl Burge described how Capt Newfer had told him he looked "dehydrated" and had "gone a funny colour", before pulling him off the march.

But in his most recent written account February 20 2019, L/Cpl Burge said he had been "mistaken" about using the word "dehydrated" and also that it was the march medic who had withdrawn him.

Asked by the coroner if he had been approached to "change" his account, he replied: "No, Ma'am."

The inquest continues.