Ballistics expert enlisted by Deepcut families begins tests at barracks

A forensic scientist hired by the families of four soldiers killed in mysterious circumstances at an army training barracks began investigating the crime scenes yesterday.

Frank Swann, a ballistics expert who first took on the case at the request of a television documentary team, has said he believes at least two of the deaths at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey do not match military claims of suicide.

The four soldiers – Private Geoff Gray, 17, from Hackney, east London; Private Sean Benton, 20, from Hastings, East Sussex; Private James Collinson, 17, from Perth, Tayside; and Private Cheryl James, from Llangollen, north Wales – all died from gunshot wounds 1995 and 2002. The families have refused to accept the Army's finding that they committed suicide using their own rifles and have accused it of a cover-up.

Surrey Police, which has re-opened the investigation into the deaths, said it would consider any findings uncovered by Mr Swann. He said the military had given his team of six scientists from Orpington, south-east London, one week to investigate each death.

Mr Swann has already stated that, in the cases of Sean Benton and Geoff Gray, initial findings had shown the wounds were not self-inflicted, and in the case of James Collinson he was 70 per cent sure that they were not.

Mr Swann has accepted a token fee of £1 from each of the four families to "make it official that we are instructed by them". He claims to have been given access to some but not all of the witness statements by Surrey Police, and said he hoped his findings would assist the official inquiry into the deaths.

"This is a fact-finding mission," he added. "I am not here to apportion blame. We are just looking at the forensics.

"I have not got a personal interest in getting a public inquiry but certainly I feel a public inquiry would bring a proper conclusion to it."

Yesterday Jim Collinson, father of James, who died last March, welcomed the moves. "The start of tests at the barracks is a big step forward for all the families. This is what we have been waiting for for so long," he said.