THE grief-stricken mother of a soldier shot dead at Catterick Garrison is calling for North Yorkshire Police to re-investigate his death.

June Sharples wants police to re-examine how her son Private Allan Sharples, 20, died after he was discovered with a gun shot wound to the head at Europe's biggest British Army base.

The Army told his family that Allan, who had been on guard duty with another soldier at the time of his death, had committed suicide - an explanation they do not agree with.

The private, who was attached to the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, had been on a morning patrol when he went round the side of a building alone.

The soldier patrolling with him claims he did not go to investigate or radio for help after hearing a gun shot. Instead he ran in the opposite direction to a guardsroom.

After Pte Sharples' death, on April 30, 2000, Army officials and North Yorkshire Police investigated but said there were no suspicious circumstances.

A coroner could not find that the soldier had committed suicide and recorded an open verdict.

Mrs Sharples plans to meet North Yorkshire detectives after discovering flaws in the original investigation.

She claims that the gun Pte Sharples had with him was never tested, and neither was the other soldier's weapon. Instead it was cleaned and put back in the rack without being analysed after an assumption was made that he had committed suicide.

Mrs Sharples, of Wigan, said: "At the inquest there were no witnesses there except the corporal who had checked the weapons that day.

"The soldier who had been on patrol with him was not even there. There was no information on where the bullet wound was on his body, who was there when it happened, who found the body. There was nothing like that.

"I want North Yorkshire Police to re-investigate."

Mrs Sharples and the mother of Richard Robertson, who was found dead at Catterick Garrison in 1995, have joined forces with the families of soldiers killed at Deepcut barracks, Surrey, in calling for a public inquiry into the deaths, a campaign backed by The Northern Echo.

They will tell their stories on a Channel Five document-ary: Deepcut: A Perfect Place for Murder tomorrow at 7.30pm.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said all sudden deaths, including those at the military base, are investigated in line with recognised police procedures.