A CIVILIAN who saw a young Tidworth soldier being “beasted” on the day he died told his inquest: “I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.”

Soldiers and civilians saw Private Gavin Williams forced to undergo an intense physical exercise session to punish him for disobedience and drunken behaviour at Lucknow Barracks on July 3, 2006.

Civil servant Dawn Harrison witnessed the beasting, on what was the hottest day of the year.

“It struck me that it was an incredibly hot day to do something like that,” she said.

“To myself and my colleagues being civilians and not being in the army it seemed preposterous to us the way the army does their disciplinary action.”

About an hour later she saw them again and heard the corporal shouting “Get your f***ing knees up” and “Get your f***ing arms up”.

“Private Williams looked physically in a bad shape,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.”

Lance Corporal Christopher Elshaw saw Pte Williams being shouted at before being drilled.

“He looked like he was injured. He was stooping with his arm around his tummy, he looked uncomfortable,”

he said.

After the beasting Pte Williams, of the Second Battalion the Royal Welsh Regiment, complained of stomach pains and collapsed and died from heatstroke.

The 22-year-old, from Hengoed, south Wales, had a temperature of 41.7C, way above the norm of 37C.

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

He had been out drinking heavily with colleagues on the Friday and Saturday nights before his death and had sprayed a fire extinguisher at guests attending a summer ball at the officers’ mess.

Three non-commissioned officers who carried out the beasting were cleared of manslaughter at Winchester Crown Court in 2008.

The inquest at Salisbury Coroner’s Court is expected to continue for four weeks.