More Deepcut victims speak out

Victims of the Deepcut scandal today revealed the scale of abuse they suffered at the barracks.

Sexual assault, brutality and humiliation were commonplace. One man, identified only as Ian, described how a drunken instructor lined up naked recruits and threw darts at them until three had lodged in their stomach.

He spoke out on the day the parents of dead soldiers at Deepcut appear before the Commons defence committee. It follows Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram yesterday announcing a full independent review into the allegations of abuse, which were revealed in a report leaked to the Evening Standard this week.

The claims of sexual assault, brutality and humiliation came as no surprise to "Ian", a Deepcut trainee between July and November 1995 - he made one of those allegations.

Ian, now a mature university student, was one of the soldiers who alleged that instructors woke them up in the night, took them outside, stripped them to their underwear and threw darts at them: "We weren't allowed back to bed until three darts had lodged in our stomachs."

According to Ian, this happened more than once: "The senior NCO would come back from town completely drunk and decide to pick on someone."

And there was no use complaining: "You would just go back to bed and put some antiseptic on. You didn't want to make a complaint at Deepcut."

Ian, from Scotland and then in his early twenties, said he had had a "fantastic time" at his first two training bases, Pirbright in Surrey and Leconfield in Yorkshire, where he learned his trade as a driver: "They were outstanding places, and a good laugh."

But Deepcut was different: "A lot of the instructors were rejects from their parent units, people who weren't going to get on in their Army careers. They all had chips on their shoulders. They were aggressive, physically and mentally."

Ian was not assaulted again after the darts incident. But he saw many other incidents: "I saw women being taken aside and told to go up to the sergeant's room to 'help' him. Once they were in there we knew exactly what was going to happen.

"Once a group of us stayed outside the door and we heard shouting and screaming from inside. We ended up knocking on the door to rescue them."

Most of the time, the violence was random: "It was just a show of force to say, 'you will not mess with us'." But some people were targeted "because they broke down more easily".

Among other incidents was a trainee thrown out of a secondfloor window. Another soldier was made to paint stones black and white, because a sergeant supported Newcastle United.

Ian was interviewed by two detectives from Surrey CID and said he will testify to the independent review if he is asked to.

Another 1995 recruit, Joanna Jones, from Rhyl, north Wales, told the Standard: "There was a climate of fear. Staff made our lives impossible and the officers stood back and did nothing."

Ms Jones, now 28, has started a campaign called " Deepcut Reunited" to gather testimony from victims and witnesses. She witnessed "humiliation and control through the use of fear".

Ms Jones served with Cheryl James, one of the dead soldiers, and says that Ms James was "under a lot of pressure".

Another member of Deepcut Reunited, Alan Kerr, from Fife, lasted only five weeks at Deepcut. "The bullying was so bad it put me off the army," he said. "Staff treated us like rubbish.

"When I told them I wanted to leave, instead of offering me support, they told me I was a disgrace. One way or another, the army put a gun to the heads of these recruits."