IRAQ WEAPONS expert Dr David Kelly, whose death in 2003 has been surrounded by various conspiracy theories, took his own life, according to a postmortem which was carried out after his body was found – but not released until now.
Secretary of state for justice Ken Clarke released the documents, which had been ordered to be sealed for 70 years by the Hutton Inquiry, which was carried out shortly after his death. “While I firmly believe that the publication of these documents is in the public interest, I am mindful that the contents may be distressing,” said Mr Clarke.
Mr Kelly died shortly after he was outed as the source of a BBC report that raised doubts about then prime minister Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq.
The publication of the postmortem has not quelled the doubts of some, who continued to argue last night for an inquest to be held, arguing that questions persisted about the amount of blood found around Dr Kelly’s body after it was found in a wood near his Oxfordshire home.
In the postmortem report, home office pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt said “significant” wounds, alongside a number of “hesitation” cuts typical in suicide cases, to Dr Kelly’s left wrist had led to “the loss of a significant volume of blood, as noted at the scene”. The largest was 6cm long and one severed the ulnar artery.
Most importantly, given the claims made since, Dr Hunt reported finding “a pool of blood beneath the knife approximately 8-10cm by 4-5cm”, while a pool ran from the left-arm wound for two to three inches.
The “orientation and arrangement” of the wounds “are typical of self-inflicted injury”, Dr Hunt wrote, while there was a “total lack of classical defence wounds against a sharp weapon attack” and no “pathological evidence that this man had been subjected to a sustained, violent assault”. Equally, he said, there was no evidence that the body had been moved – as some conspiracy theorists have long alleged.
A toxicology report showed he had taken up to 30 co-proxamol tablets, a prescription drug used to treat mild to moderate pain, though he vomited eight of these before dying. The tablets “coupled with apparently clinically silent coronary artery disease would have both played a part in bringing about death more certainly and more rapidly than would have otherwise been the case”, he said.
Lord Hutton, the chair of the 2003 inquiry, in a statement last night said there had “never been any secrecy” about the postmortem reports, and that all of the documents published yesterday had been available to lawyers involved in his 2003 inquiry, while Dr Hunt and other experts gave oral evidence in public to it about the cause of Dr Kelly’s death.
His death took place after the BBC reported Downing Street had “sexed up” claims that Saddam Hussein could attack the UK within 45 minutes. Identified as the source by the ministry of defence, he was ordered to give evidence to a Commons inquiry.
He did so a week later and was often visibly distressed. The next day he went for a walk and was reported missing when he did not return, and his body was found a day later.
No inquest has been held into Dr Kelly’s death because the Lord Chancellor at the time, Lord Falconer, ruled that the inquiry carried out by Lord Hutton had made the holding of one unnecessary.
Attorney general Dominic Grieve QC will decide whether to order one now – but sources in London last night indicated that he would not unless “new evidence” is brought forward.
Last night, Dr Kelly’s family – his widow Janice and daughters Sian, Rachel and Ellen – had no comment to make on the secretary of state’s decision to publish the documentation, though it is believed they were told in advance.
Lawyers who came together earlier this year to push for an inquest continued to push for one last night: “There is very little, if anything, in the report that gives further information,” said former deputy coroner Margaret Bloom.