Relatives of the dead refused to believe it was suicide

Surrey Police, which is investigating the deaths, said it would postpone releasing its findings, due next week, after reading Frank Swann's submission.

Mr Swann, an independent investigator hired by the families of the victims, said most of the bullet wounds were "highly unlikely" to be self-inflicted.

The four soldiers - Sean Benton, Geoff Gray, James Collinson and Cheryl James - all died from gunshot wounds at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey between 1995 and 2002.

Sceptical

Mr Swann was hired by the families, who were sceptical when the Ministry of Defence said their children had committed suicide.

The dead soldiers Sean Benton, 20, from Hastings, East Sussex, 1995 Cheryl James, 18, from Llangollen, north Wales, 1995 Geoff Gray, 17, from Seaham, County Durham, 2001 James Collinson, 17, from Perth, Scotland, 2002

He spent six weeks at the barracks earlier this year and gave his evidence to the police on Friday.

Mr Collinson's father, Jim, said: "At least now Surrey Police seem to have come to their senses and said: 'Wait a minute, maybe Frank Swann has got a point here, let's stop our report and get all the experts together to discuss the findings'."

"Maybe Frank Swann's report will be the last piece of straw that will break the donkey's back, and will finally get a public inquiry into these deaths."

A team of 30 detectives from Surrey Police have spent a year examining the deaths, the investigation prompted by the fourth death, that of Private James Collinson in March 2002.

Disagreement

He said it was "highly unlikely" all the bullet wounds were self-inflicted.

Surrey Police had arranged to hold a special briefing on Tuesday to announce their findings.

But on Friday a spokesman said Mr Swann had disagreed with the findings of forensic scientists who carried out initial ballistics examinations.

A statement said that as a result, experts from the Bundeskriminalamt, the German criminal investigation office, had been asked to undertake further tests, while Mr Swann also carried out more examinations.

The deaths happened between 1995 and 2002.

The spokesman said: "We have this afternoon formally received details from Mr Swann.

"There appear to be differences between the findings of Mr Swann, the Forensic Science Service and the Bundeskriminalamt.

"Mr Swann has agreed to meet the other experts to jointly discuss their findings and rationale behind them.

"It is therefore inappropriate to conclude our investigation until this meeting has taken place.

"As a result we will not be undertaking the final briefings of the families of Sean Benton, James Collinson, Geoff Gray and Cheryl James next week as previously planned."

Accident possible

Mr Swann had said it was "highly unlikely" that bullet wounds to the heads of Cheryl James and Geoff Gray were self-inflicted.

His report also said in the case of Sean Benton, it was possible that two bullet wounds were self-inflicted but "highly unlikely" that three on his torso were.

Mr Swann said it was "unlikely" bullet wounds to the underside of Mr Collinson's chin and head were self-inflicted but it was possible they were the result of an accident.

Geoff Gray's father, also called Geoff Gray, said on Friday he had seen Mr Swann's report but would not comment until Surrey Police had had more time to consider its findings.