AN ARMY chain of command “failed to identify” the use of unofficial punishments known as “beastings,” a coroner found yesterday as he concluded the inquest into the death of a young recruit.

Assistant Wiltshire and Swindon coroner Alan Large said Private Gavin Williams, 22, died from heatstroke in 2006 after being subjected to the beasting on one of the hottest days of the year.

The soldier, from Hengoed in south Wales, was admitted to hospital, where his body temperature was found to be 41.7°C, way above the norm of 37°C.

Tests later showed he had ecstasy in his body when he died.

The young recruit had been subjected to an informal session of intense physical exercise — known as a beasting — by three non-commissioned officers to punish him for disobedience and a series of drunken incidents.

Sergeants Russell Price and Paul Blake and Corporal John Edwards were cleared of manslaughter in 2008.

At the inquest senior officers denied any knowledge of beastings taking place but a number of soldiers contradicted these claims, saying that the punishment was a “regular occurrence.”

Mr Large returned a narrative verdict after hearing more than 100 witnesses at the coroner’s court in Salisbury.

He said: “Gavin died as the result of the imposition of unofficial physical punishment in the form of marching drill and physical exercise conducted on a very hot day.

“This punishment was part of a system of such unofficial punishments operating in the battalion which the chain of command failed to identify or prevent.”

He said there was a “missed opportunity” to diagnose Mr Williams with heatstroke. Had that happened, “Gavin would have survived.”

The coroner dismissed Mr Williams’s use of ecstasy as contributing “a minimum to his death.”