Charles Blatchford at the Deepcut Inquest

Private Geoff Gray was found dead with two gunshot wounds at Deepcut Barracks in 2001. He was the third of four young soldiers to die at the barracks with such wounds between 1995 and 2002. In 2018 the original inquest was quashed and a fresh inquest ordered.

His Honour Judge Peter Rook QC has been appointed to hear the inquest which is now underway. At a pre-inquest hearing he ruled that the case engages Article 2 meaning that there will be a full investigation into Geoff’s death and the wider environment in which he lived at Deepcut. As part of this, the inquest will examine allegations that soldiers were bullied, the camp lacked appropriate supervision by staff, whether there were security breaches (the loss of weapons and ammunition) and intruders at the camp and failings in the subsequent investigations into Geoff’s death. Charles Blatchford represents the Commanding Officer of the Barracks at the time.

Full press articles can be found on the BBC and The Guardian.