By Paul Reoch

THE MOTHER of a young Perth soldier who died in controversial circumstances at Deepcut barracks last night said she believed the army was to blame for his death.

Yvonne Collinson told The Courier she has established that “warning signs” were there of a “tragedy waiting to happen.”

She will travel to Edinburgh Castle today with her husband Jim to meet members of the Army Board of Inquiry looking into the death of their son James.

He was one of four recruits who died in separate incidents at Deepcut in Surrey between 1995 and 2002. The others who died were Privates Sean Benton (20), Geoff Gray (17) and Cheryl James (18).

Mr and Mrs Collinson have tirelessly campaigned for a full public inquiry into the deaths at Deepcut, but have had their wishes denied so far. All four recruits died from gunshot wounds, with a series of inquiries having taken place to investigate what actually led to the deaths.

Following the original meeting of the Army Board of Inquiry, James Collinson’s parents will today present their statement to army officials. But Mrs Collinson last night said she found it “sad” that this inquiry did not take place in the aftermath of their son’s death and laid the blame for the untimely loss squarely on the army.

“The army were warned by both the Evans and Hayes reports that something was wrong—it was a tragedy waiting to happen,” she said. “I hold them responsible for James’s death as we feel they didn’t take care of him.

“If we knew then what we know now, we would have never signed the parental slip—it’s so frustrating,” she added. “I am concerned for other parents. Deepcut is now one of the safest barracks and has a greater staff to recruit ratio.

“But we know that these staff were pulled from other army barracks, so what is the position at these bases?”

She said that, despite initially hearing that her son’s death was swept aside, staff at Deepcut were moved by the loss.

She added, “We had heard that some people were saying, ‘Well, that’s one less mouth to feed,’ which is awful. But what we have since heard is that many of the staff were absolutely gutted and that morale was really low after James’s death.

“A lot of staff wanted to leave Deepcut because of what had happened and that shows us they really cared. But it’s sad the inquiry was not set up in the aftermath of his death. It would have been far more beneficial to work with the army than against them, but that is what has occurred.”

A report ordered in 2005 found recruits suffered from harassment, self-harm and injury because of poor management of the training system. QC Nicholas Blake’s independent review found that “on the balance of probabilities” the deaths of three young soldiers at Deepcut were “self-inflicted.”

He also concluded there was no evidence any of the trainees were bullied to death, but the human rights barrister failed to reach a conclusion on Private Collinson.

This mirrored the findings of a separate inquest into his death, which returned an open verdict. A Devon and Cornwall Police report on Surrey’s handling of the case was not released in its entirety as it would “harm the reputation of Surrey Police.”