Hoon's Deepcut apology 'meaningless'

Last updated at 16:22 27 April 2004


Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon today apologised "unreservedly" to the families of four young recruits who died at Deepcut barracks for the way the grieving relatives had been treated.

Mr Hoon was speaking in a Westminster Hall debate where he faced calls for a public inquiry over the four deaths at the Surrey barracks between 1995 and 2002.

But he told MPs there would be a "number of difficulties" associated with a fresh investigation.

There had already been "very thorough and detailed" scrutiny of the deaths including a 15-month investigation by Surrey Police.

Sincerest apologies

But he added: "It is clear that in certain respects the support we have provided for grieving relatives has fallen short of the standards we demand of ourselves."

The Defence Secretary issued his "sincerest apologies" for the "additional pain" that this had caused.

"It is clear that each family feels poorly served not only by the institutions whose responsibility it was to protect their loved ones but also by those responsible for finding out what happened," he said.

But he added: "We recognise that we have a duty to the families of those who died and we apologise unreservedly where that duty has not been fully discharged."

Meaningless

However Geoff Gray, whose son of the same name died of gunshot wounds at the Surrey army camp in September, 2001, reiterated his intention to take legal action against the Ministry of Defence if a political solution cannot be found.

He accused Mr Hoon of merely reading from a script and said the apology was "meaningless".

The apology was not sufficient, considering the amount of campaigning undertaken since the deaths.

Mr Gray added: "I feel that apology was too little, too late."

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