Ex-instructor on male rape charge

A former training instructor has been charged with indecently assaulting two young male recruits and raping one of them at a barracks where four soldiers died in controversial circumstances.

Leslie Skinner, 45, of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, was charged with one count of male rape and five counts of indecent assault against males at the Deepcut barracks, Surrey Police said.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between 1996 and 1997 while Skinner was serving with the Royal Logistics Corps at the Princess Royal Barracks at Deepcut.

Police said the two alleged victims were aged 17 and 21 - but stressed there was no evidence of a "direct connection" between the case and the deaths of four recruits.

Skinner was charged when he answered bail at Guildford Police Station on Monday.

He is due to appear before Guildford Magistrates' Court on July 15.

The allegations against Skinner came to light as police investigated the deaths of the four recruits at Deepcut, all of whom died from gunshot wounds at the barracks between 1995 and 2002.

A spokesman for the force said: "These (the allegations) have come about as a result of soldiers coming forward to us while we were investigating the Deepcut deaths.

"Although these allegations have been investigated by the same team looking into the deaths of four soldiers at the Deepcut Barracks in 1995, 2001 and 2002 there is no evidence to suggest there is a direct connection between them."

The decision to charge Skinner was taken after consultation between Surrey Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, he added. Skinner was a Lance Corporal serving with the Royal Logistics Corps, which has its headquarters at Deepcut. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence confirmed Skinner had left the Army in 1998.

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