Deepcut parents welcome MoD probe

An official review of events at the Deepcut training camp is launched today amid a row between the Ministry of Defence and the father of a soldier who died there.

Nicholas Blake QC, a human rights lawyer from Cherie Blair's Matrix Chambers, will appeal for information about crimes at the camp between 1995 and 2002, when four young soldiers died mysteriously.

The review was ordered by the MoD after a Surrey police report listing 173 allegations of rape, gang rape, abuse and sexual humiliation was leaked to the Evening Standard.

Senior officers from Deepcut will be called to testify for the first time. "I have spoken to Mr Blake and I am quite encouraged," said Geoff Gray, whose son, also named Geoff, died at Deepcut in 2001. "I think he will try to get to the bottom of this and hope he will end up calling for a full inquiry."

He also attacked deputy chief of defence staff, General Anthony Palmer, for saying soldiers who committed suicide were "less intelligent".

The general said yesterday: "There is a predisposition to self harm and suicide among the less intelligent and the RAF and Royal Navy recruit at a higher level of educational attainment than the Army."