David Kelly/Assassination

 "suicide"
David Kelly/Assassination (assassination,  mid-level deep event)

Date	17 July 2003
Interest of	Vladimir Pasechnik
Subpage	•David Kelly/Assassination/Hutton Inquiry
Description	On 17 July 2003, David Kelly allegedly committed suicide by swallowing 29 co-proxamol tablets and cutting to his ulnar artery (wrist) with a blunt pruning knife. He was writing a book exposing high level corruption at the time and had given no indication of depression. An official inquest was commenced but never completed.

This page is outdated and lacks a proper narrative structure.

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Official Narrative

An official inquest into David Kelly's death was suspended before completion and over 10 years later, there are no official plans to complete it. The official narrative is represented by the 2004 Hutton Inquiry, which concluded that depressed and under strain by the media attention focused on him, David Kelly committed suicide. He died from bleeding after ingestion of 29 co-proxamol tablets and self-inflicted cuts to his ulnar artery (wrist) done by a blunt pruning knife.

"Suicided"

Several people believe that Kelly was suicided, including Susan Lindauer who has suggested Tony Blair ordered the assassination. Retired surgeon David Halpin lead a small group which used legal means to try to change this verdict. MP Norman Baker stepped down from the Shadow Cabinet for a year to spend a year researching Kelly's death. The challenged the purported inquiry, stating that it "blatantly failed to get to the bottom of matters... the more I look into it the less convinced I am by the explanation and the more unanswered questions appear which ought to have been addressed properly by the Hutton inquiry or by the coroner."

Unanswered Questions

As at May 2011

1. Operation Mason, the police code-name for the search for Dr Kelly, was officially started before his family had reported him missing. The official explanation is that operation start times are often made retrospective to cover any preceding period relevant to the operation; but if this were the reason in this case, then the start time would need to be weeks, not hours earlier. Who authorised the opening of documentation on the operation and at precisely what time?
2. Why were there no fingerprints on Dr Kelly's knife, pill packets, water bottle, glasses, mobile or watch? He wore no gloves. Police knew this when they gave evidence to Hutton but the absence of prints wasn't mentioned.
3. Lord Hutton said photographic evidence showed Dr Kelly's body was found propped against a tree, yet the first paramedic to reach the scene said he was originally flat on his back. Who moved the body and why?
4. Detective Constable Coe of Thames Valley Police, who guarded Dr Kelly's body after it was found, has admitted concealing the presence of an unidentified man at the scene. His Inquiry evidence indicates, in unambiguous terms, that he was with just one other person (DC Shields), whereas those who met him as he arrived at the scene say he was with TWO others. The report itself also numbers DC Coe as one of three plain clothes police officers to arrive before the official search-tasked uniformed officers. Evidence from those other officers (notably PC's Franklin and Sawyer) describe DC Coe as being with two UNIFORMED officers (Related - Item 10). These are serious anomalies which were not explored by the Inquiry and which require explanation.
5. In 2003 Dr Kelly's friend, Mai Pederson, told police Dr Kelly couldn't cut steak because of an old injury to his right arm. How could he have slashed his left wrist? She also said he had a pill phobia.
6. Former MP Robert Jackson has said Dr Kelly's GP, Dr Malcolm Warner told him he saw the corpse immediately after its discovery. When Dr Warner gave evidence to the Hutton Inquiry he failed to report this. Why?
7. All medical and scientific reports, and photographs of Dr Kelly's body were secretly classified for 70 years by Lord Hutton after the death. On what legal basis was that done and why?
8. The death certificate does not state where he died, as it should, but was registered midway through the Hutton Inquiry anyway, before Hutton concluded how he died. Why?
9. According to Dr Kelly's widow, police stripped wallpaper from their sitting room on the night of his disappearance. Why?
10. Several key witnesses did not appear at Hutton. They include Paul Weaving, supposedly the last person to see Dr Kelly alive; DC Shields, one of the police first at the scene and described by other police witnesses as a 'Uniformed' officer, but by others as in plain clothes as would be expected of a DC (See item 4 above); Dr Eileen Hickey, the forensic biologist who attended Harrowdown Hill. Why?
11. A 110ft communications mast was erected outside Dr Kelly's house immediately after he was declared missing early on July 18. Was it used to communicate with Tony Blair (en route to Tokyo from Washington) and/or his spin chief Alastair Campbell?
12. What was the mission of the helicopter which landed at Harrowdown Hill about 90 minutes after discovery of Dr Kelly's body and which was not mentioned at all in the proceedings of the Hutton Inquiry. According to the Daily Mail, the helicopter flight log, released under FOI provisions, shows that it was on hire to the Thames valley Police and has been 'heavily redacted' so the 'Authorities' clearly have things to hide concerning its mission.
13. Whose fingerprints are on Dr Kelly's dental records file that went missing for just 24 hours from the surgery on the day of his death. Information confirming the existence of the fingerprints was released under an FOI request on 23 May 2011 and contradicts the evidence about them which was given to the Hutton Inquiry by Assistant Chief Constable Michael Page.

Updates

• 13 August 2010. Experts urge full inquest into David Kelly death
• 9 June 2011. Attorney General Dominic Grieve refuses a full inquest hearing

Evidence submitted to the Attorney General by David Halpin FRCS

Documents sent to the Attorney General on 28 February 2011:

• File:McGintyReportsHuntAllan.pdf - Corpse moved. 5 blood samples taken at PM but only one referred to at Hutton. 28 November 2010
• File:McGinty2Heart.pdf - Contradictory evidence re. heart disease. Dr Hunt changes his diagnosis of the cause of death. 6 December 2010
• File:McGThree.pdf - Insufficiency of inquiry. What clothing. Key witnesses not called. 16 February 2010
• File:McGRachelK.pdf - Rachel Kelly. Dad deported from Kuwait 19 May. Hutton inquiry didn't look into this at all. 16 February 2011
• File:McGGardinerDCA.pdf - Observations on correspondence between coroner and Dept of Constitutional Affairs. Dr Hunt had changed his diagnosis as to cause of death but failed to tell Hutton. 22 February 2011

George Galloway released a documentary about his death in April 2021.

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External Links

• Dr David Kelly: The damning new evidence that points to a cover-up by Tony Blair's government - Daily Mail 26 June 2010
• Dr David Kelly's body 'had obviously been moved': Paramedic at death scene reveals concerns over Hutton Inquiry - Mail Online 12 September 2010. The report also reveals that the Statutory Paramedic reports of their attendance at the scene has been "lost" and the copy of it scanned onto the NHS computer system as a matter of routine "Cannot be found either".
• Mystery of the helicopter that landed at scene of Dr Kelly's death after his body was found Daily Mail 14 May 2011
• Doubts over Dr Kelly that won't go away Daily Mail Comment - 14 May 2011
• Conspiracy theories still surround Kelly death. Liam Sloan - Oxford Mail 30 May 2011
• Doctors will launch court fight if Dr David Kelly inquest demand is turned down Mail Online 7 June 2011
• Attorney general rules out new David Kelly inquest - The Guardian 9 June 2011
• VIDEO - Norman Baker MP and Rowena Thursby interviewed in BBC documentary 2011

• Dr Kelly's Death - Suicide or Murder Blog
• Chilcott's Cheating Us Blog
• ISBN 978 1 84275 217 3 'The Strange Death of David Kelly' - Norman Baker MP. Methuen 2007.