POLICE chiefs have been accused of being prepared to ignore vital evidence about the deaths of four soldiers at Deepcut barracks.

Families of the four victims - who included Geoff Gray, 17, of Seaham, County Durham - said they were considering making an official complaint about the police investigation into their deaths at the Surrey barracks.

Recently, Surrey Police postponed a planned media briefing to announce the findings of their year-long investigation.

They claimed independent investigator Frank Swann had left it until the last minute to inform them of his conclusion that it was "highly unlikely" many of the fatal bullets were fired by the soldiers.

But the families said they had discovered Mr Swann told the force of his findings more than two months ago.

Geoff Gray's father, also called Geoff, and his wife, Diane, met senior officers from Surrey Police only days before the planned media briefing.

Mr Gray said that police told him they were due to announce there was no evidence of third party involvement in the deaths.

"They expected us to believe it was suicide, when they had information that could point in a different direction," he said:

"The police were going to go ahead and say they had no proof of third party involvement.

"They were going to tell this to the families, the Press and the public, but they had the proof in front of them five or six weeks prior to that," he said.

Des James, whose 18-year-old daughter, Cheryl, died at Deepcut, said that he had lost confidence in the investigation.

"We are seriously considering now whether we should resurrect this formal complaint," he said.

"We do not have any faith in the investigation. From where I am standing, the investigation has fallen below the water line."

A spokeswoman for Surrey Police denied that they had sat on evidence from Mr Swann, adding that he had never given them more than his opinion.

She said: "We are still anxiously awaiting him providing us with a least some evidence upon which he relies to make his assertion.

"There is a distinction between making an assertion and providing the evidence, scientific test results and rationale upon which the assertion is made."

She said the force was still trying to arrange a meeting between Mr Swann and the other forensic experts to discuss the "differences" between them.