Lance Corporal Mark Cooley's father has dismissed the Iraq abuse allegations against his son as rubbish.

Graham Cooley, 49, last saw his son when he was back on leave in Newcastle just over a year ago.

He said: "I am behind Mark 100 per cent. He is my son and I think this is all a load of rubbish.

"I'm not even sure it's him in those pictures to be honest.

"They say they were taken in May 2003. What I want to know is why they've taken so long to come to surface.

"The first I heard about this was when I read it in the papers on Monday night and it was a real shock to me.

"What's being said are just allegations. We don't know the truth yet and that's all I can say."

The other North-East soldier facing the court martial lost his wife nine years ago when she was only 21.

Corporal Daniel Kenyon's wife Ruth died from a blood clot caused by the contraceptive pill in 1996. Their son was four months old at the time.

At the time the couple were living in barracks at the Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, and an inquest heard how Cpl Kenyon found his wife dead in the living room after returning from work. Ruth had gone back onto the pill after the birth of the couple's first child.

She died after a blood clot formed in her leg and moved to her lungs.

Pathologist Dr David Henderson, of Northallerton's Friarage Hospital, said the circumstances surrounding Ruth's death were extremely rare and only about two women per million on the pill developed serious complications like this.

And he added that the chances of dying in a car accident are 80 times higher than from a problem with the pill.