As 29-year-old soldier is laid to rest her death remains a mystery

A YOUNG judo champion and soldier has been laid to rest with full military honours as mourners were told of unanswered questions around her death.

Corporal Stephanie Hart, originally from Sighthill, died at the age of 29 while serving with 10th Queen's Own Gurkha Logistics Regiment.

A coroner's inquest is under way to discover the circumstances around her body being found on a recreation ground in Farnham, just outside Aldershot, where she was based.

Cpl Hart, known as Steph, was stationed in the town as part of a British force attached to the predominantly Nepalese regiment and had seen service in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Her family have spoken of the devastating loss of a "fantastic daughter" who took a bronze for Scotland at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 before signing up for the army shortly before the outbreak of the war in Iraq.

A eulogy from Cpl Hart's mother Janet, read out at her funeral at Edinburgh's Mortonhall Crematorium yesterday, spoke of unanswered questions.

She said: "To Stephanie, my daughter, so many questions, so few answers, so many things left unsaid.

"You were the light of my life and now that light has been diminished. You are in my thoughts and in my heart. Till we meet again, mum."

At her funeral, Cpl Hart was described as "a young woman who gave so much to all who knew her in the world of judo and in the army".

Standing over her coffin, which was draped in the British flag with a single red rose, her father Ian, 60, who lives in Broxburn, said: "This should have been my day, with Steph here and me in there, but it's not."

Cpl Hart won her first Scottish senior judo title at the age of 15 and represented Scotland at three Commonwealth Games. After joining the army, she led the Combined Services Ladies Team to the national team medal.

A spokesman for Cpl Hart's regiment refused to comment until the inquest has concluded.

A police spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that Cpl Stephanie Hart's body was found at Heath End Recreation Ground, Farnham, at 11.30am on 28 August 2010. Police have found no suspicious circumstances."

The coroner's inquest is not expected to return a verdict for another four weeks.