BULLYING and abuse is continuing at Army training camps despite claims by senior officers to have stamped it out, bereaved families told MPs yesterday.

Mothers and fathers of young recruits who died at Deepcut and Catterick barracks joined forces to urge a Commons committee not to fall for the Army's insistence that its culture had changed.

Both sets of families told how they had been contacted by soldiers who were suffering at training camps - nine years after the first suspicious death at notorious Deepcut barracks, in Surrey.

The harrowing stories included:

* A Catterick recruit whose jaw was broken in two places, requiring a metal plate to be inserted. He was later asked to go back on guard duty, while his jaw was fractured.

* A soldier who was beaten up and kicked in the head by a gang of six colleagues at Catterick, apparently with the knowledge of a corporal who said: "He has had enough."

* A trainee who was driven to harm himself at Catterick and was now in rehabilitation in a mental hospital.

* A serving sergeant who was raped when he joined the Army as a 16-year-old and who was now willing to come forward.

Diane Gray, the mother of Private Geoff Gray, of Seaham, County Durham, who died at Deepcut, said of the sergeant: "He said 'Don't for one minute think it has gone away. It is still happening today'."

The parents of Private James Collinson, also killed at Deepcut, said they had been contacted by serving soldiers, ex-soldiers and families warning of ongoing bullying at the Surrey base.

Lynn Farr, whose son Daniel died at Catterick, said her campaign for a public inquiry into no fewer than 27 deaths at the North Yorkshire camp, had been contacted by four people.

And Claudia Beckley-Lines, whose son William was the 19th Catterick recruit to die since the base opened in 1995, pointed out that the death toll had since risen to 27.

She said: "If there had been changes, there should now be less deaths. But there are not."

The alleged continued bullying at Catterick was revealed after Kevan Jones, Labour MP for Durham North, said its commanding officers had told the committee "everything in the garden was now rosy".

The Deepcut and Catterick families gave evidence separately to the all-party defence select committee's inquiry into whether the Army is meeting its "duty of care" towards recruits.

The Catterick mothers told how their sons' personalities were transformed after being posted there, as the young men stopped talking, visiting friends and even making eye contact.

Mrs Beckley-Lines said William, who died in September 1998 after being dragged through a training run, said her son's weight plunged from 18 stone to 12 stone.

She said: "I would see marks on his face and say who did you get those? He wouldn't talk. It was like a child being bullied. He wouldn't talk."

The MPs were visibly shocked by Mrs Gray's testimony of a chaplain's refusal to say her son was dead when he arrived at her home, because Mr Gray - who had signed Pte Gray into the Army - was not present.

Mrs Gray said: "I grabbed her and put her up against the wall and told her to tell me what had gone on. I said 'Has he died' and she still refused to answer.

"I said 'Just nod or shake your head' and she nodded her head."

Mr and Mrs Gray have long campaigned for a public inquiry into the Deepcut deaths, a demand rejected again this week by armed forces minister Adam Ingram.

Mr Ingram did agree to a further independent review of previous investigations, but that review will not be held in public and will not have the power to summon witnessess.