British police have decided to investigate the shooting deaths of two young soldiers at an army barracks in separate incidents seven years ago, a spokeswoman said today.
The investigation into the deaths of Pte Sean Benton, 20, and Pte Cheryl James, 17, comes as police are still probing two other mysterious deaths of soldiers at the Deepcut barracks in Surrey, southeast England, in the past nine months.
All four died of bullet wounds - three of them while on guard duty - at the camp.
A spokeswoman for Surrey police confirmed the opening of the Pte Benton and Pte James' investigations but would give no details.
The army conducted its own investigation into the deaths and ruled that all four were suicides but family members have questioned those verdicts and pressed for full investigations.
Mr Des James, father of Cheryl, said he was pleased that the police had agreed to reopen his daughter's case.
"It's a major step forward that they - as we - believe there are questions to be asked surrounding my daughter's death," he told BBC radio today.
He added that he believed it was possible his daughter had taken her own life because there was a "culture of quite sinister bullying at the Deepcut camp" at the time of her death in November, 1995.
The Daily Telegraph reported this week that Cheryl James had been forced into a sexual relationship with a corporal before she was found dead.
In the two more recent incidents, Pte Geoff Gray, 17, died of two gunshot wounds to the head in September 2001, while Private James Collinson, also 17, was found dead with a single gunshot wound in March of this year.
PA