A coroner has said the parents of a soldier found shot at Deepcut barracks in Surrey have waited far too long for a proper examination of her death.
Pte Cheryl James, from north Wales, was found dead with a bullet wound to the head in 1995.
The 18-year-old was one of four recruits to die at the base in seven years.
Coroner Brian Barker QC said it was regrettable there had not been a more thorough investigation at the time.
“This has been a long and a difficult exercise, and many events since the autumn of 1995 have had to be examined,” he said, as he delivered his verdict.
“It is highly regrettable that the investigation of Ms James’s death in 1995 was not more thorough and the scene of her death not more fully and scientifically investigated.
“Had it been, some of the inconsistencies of memory might have been avoided and the scientific evidence might have been of much better quality.”
The inquest, which is the second into Pte James’s death, began in February and heard from more than 100 witnesses.
But the coroner said it was not a public inquiry into Deepcut in the 1990s and he would only look at criticisms of the culture and command at the barracks insofar as they were linked to Pte James’s death.
Pte James had been carrying out lone guard duty at the barracks when she was found dead, which the coroner said military rules should not have allowed.
“It seems to me that lone armed guard duty is a potentially dangerous activity,” he said, adding that Deepcut barracks failed in its duty of care to its young recruits.
There were far too few officers to train and look after the young squaddies, who were left bored and indisciplined, Mr Barker added.
A first inquest into Pte James’s death in December 1995 recorded an open verdict.
This second inquest was ordered after High Court judges quashed the original findings.
The mother of another soldier who died, Pte Geoff Gray, said she was also applying for the open verdict on her own son’s death to be overturned.
Pte Gray, from Seaham, County Durham, was 17 when he was found dead from two gunshot wounds at the base in September 2001.
Diane Gray said: “This case opens the doors for the other families to find out what happened to their children.
“In the next few weeks we will be putting our application forward to the Attorney General to ask him to overturn our original verdict and look into new evidence and hopefully give us a new inquest.”
She said the inquest into Pte James had been an awful experience and she felt sorry for Mr and Mrs James.
Surrey Police has apologised to the James family for the questioning by their barrister during the inquest, saying they showed “admirable resilience” throughout their long search for answers.
“Any additional stress caused to the family during the inquest was not intentional and we apologise for any ways they feel Surrey police made the experience worse,” it said in a statement.
