The parents of a soldier from the Shropshire border today spoke out about a refusal by the police to make public an investigation into the handling of her death and others at a controversial army camp.
Des and Doreen James, from Llanymynech, on the Shropshire/Powys border are calling for a public inquiry into the deaths, from gunshot wounds, of four soldiers at Deepcut in Surrey.
Private Cheryl James was 18 when she was found dead at the camp in 1995. An army investigation said she had taken her own life although her inquest brought in an open verdict.
The deaths of the soldiers were investigated by Surrey police. But following criticism of its inquiries, Devon and Cornwall police force was called in to review the handling of the case.
Only a three-page summary of that review has ever been published and now a request by a national newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act for the full report has been turned down.
The reasons for refusal were that the documents would take too long to process, exceeding the £600 cost limit for handling Freedom of Information requests, the information was likely to harm the reputation of Surrey Police, have a negative impact on the public confidence and raise wider concerns about Army training camps.
Mr James said: “Surely that is an extremely good reason to release it. Surrey Police as well as the MOD have continued to do all they can to avoid a public inquiry, and to keep the unsavoury truth of the case away from the the public.”
One Comment
If this is all open and above board why is there this refusal by police to make their investigation into the case public ?
It doesn’t inspire much public confidence and sounds like the powers that be don’t give a tinkers cuss whether we are inspired with confidence or not !!
Odd business all this and has been from day one.