Deepcut instructor charged with sex attacks

A former military training instructor has been charged with raping and sexually assaulting two young recruits at Deepcut barracks in Surrey, where four soldiers have died in controversial circumstances.

Les Skinner, 45, faces one charge of male rape and five counts of indecent assault. The charges are not connected to any of the soldiers whose deaths are being investigated by police.

Relatives of the dead soldiers have claimed there is a widespread culture of bullying at Deepcut and at other Army barracks, and are demanding a public inquiry into the affair. Skinner, who was charged yesterday by the same Surrey Police team investigating the deaths at the camp, has been dismissed by the Army after facing disciplinary procedures.

He served in Northern Ireland until 1994. He was transferred to the Deepcut camp where the offences are alleged to have taken place between 1996 and 1997. The two victims of the alleged offences at Deepcut were 17 and 18 when it is claimed they were subjected to a series of sexual assaults.

Skinner, from Lincolnshire, was a private serving with the Royal Logistics Corps, whose HQ is at Deepcut. He has been released on bail to appear before Guildford magistrates on 15 July.

A Surrey Police spokesman said: "A 45-year-old man has been charged with one count of male rape and five counts of indecent assault between 1996 and 1997 at the Deepcut Army barracks.

"These charges are in no way connected to the deaths of the four soldiers which are currently the subject of an investigation by Surrey Police."

Police launched an investigation last year after the families of four soldiers who died between 1995 and 2002 campaigned with MPs for the cases to be reexamined.

The bodies of 17-year-old James Collinson, from Perth, Private Geoff Gray, 17, from Hackney, and Pte Sean Benton, 20, from Hastings, were found with gunshot wounds at Deepcut. Pte Cheryl James, 18, from North Wales, was also found dead in mysterious circumstances.

The Army has claimed all the deaths were suicides.

The £1million police inquiry will finish at the end of this month and is expected to say no charges will be brought. Instead police will pass a report to a coroner who can decide if new inquests should be opened.

Earlier inquests found that Pte Benton committed suicide and recorded open verdicts on Privates Gray and James.