Soldiers were told not to ring home

Soldiers at Deepcut barracks were told not to ring home after the body of a young recruit was found, an inquest has heard.

Private Cheryl James, 18, was discovered with a fatal bullet wound in November 1995 – one of four recruits to die at the army training camp in Surrey over a seven-year period.

Her former room-mate, Lisa Slattery, told a fresh inquest into her death she laughed when she first heard the gunshot because she thought Pte James had fired her gun accidentally.

But then a sergeant received a phone call and ordered a group of male soldiers to follow him, while telling female recruits to stay behind.

Ms Slattery told Woking Coroner’s Court in Surrey: “Someone said, ‘Don’t phone home or anything like that. Go to this room and we can talk about what happened’.”

Nicholas Moss QC, representing the Ministry of Defence, said the instruction was presumably when Pte James’s parents had not been informed of their daughter’s death.

Ms Slattery replied: “I don’t know. I remember being really upset because I could not tell my parents.”

High Court judges ordered the fresh inquest in 2014 after they quashed an open verdict recorded in December 1995.

Privates Sean Benton, 20, James Collinson, 17, and Geoff Gray, 17, also died from gunshot wounds at the barracks between 1995 and 2002.

The inquest was adjourned until tomorrow.