Front-Page article from Tuesday 27th issue of the London Evening Standard

No web ref as it was not published on the London Evening Standard website, which is: www.thisislondon.co.uk

Was Kelly Murdered?

Three medical experts today cast serious doubts over how weapons expert David Kelly is believed to have died.

They gave a detailed analysis of the circumstances of his death, raising the possibility that Dr. Kelly did not take his own life but in fact murdered. The specialists also called for a full inquest.

The intervention came the day before publication of Lord Hutton’s report into Dr Kelly’s death.

The UN weapons inspector was found near his Oxfordshire home last July. He had been named as the source of a BBC report claiming the Government “sexed up” a dossier on the threat from Iraq.

It was believed that he killed himself after becoming embroiled in a furious row between the Government and the BBC over the reasons for going to war against Saddam Hussain.

A pathologist told the Hutton Inquiry that he thought Dr Kelly had bled to death from a self-inflicted wound on his left wrist, with a drugs overdose listed as a possible contributing factor. But consultant surgeon David Halpin, speaking on behalf of a group of specialists, said today they believe it “improbable” that he could have bled to death from such a cut.

They said he would have had to have lost five pints of blood to have died that way. But from the cut found on his wrist he was unlikely to have lost more than a pint. The ambulance crew at the scene reported minimal loss of blood.

Mr Halpin and his colleagues also said the level of the painkiller Co-proxamol found in his system was far from enough to have killed him.

In a letter to the Guardian the specialists detailed flaws in the official explanation. The experts told the Evening Standard that they were not accusing anyone of murder but added: “The picture is not a happy one.”

Mr Halpin said: “There are all sorts of evidence that are most unsatisfactory. We would like this inquest reopened, so that in this very important case, no stone is left unturned. As specialist medical professionals, we do not consider the evidence given at the Hutton Inquiry has demonstrated that Dr Kelly committed suicide.

“We find it difficult to accept that a cut, such as the one described, could result in death. It is very unlikely that this injury would have been fatal.”

He added: “Because the case was so high profile, I imagined that the autopsy and inquest would be carried out to the highest standard that our state could muster. But the more I thought about it, the less certain I became that he could have died from a cut to the left wrist.”

During the Hutton Inquiry forensic pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt concluded that the scientist bled to death.

Dr Kelly’s body was found slumped near a tree in woods. Lying next to him were the Scout knife he had since a boy, his watch, flat cap, glasses, a container of his wife’s painkillers and a bottle of water.

Dr Hunt told the Inquiry that the only artery involved – the ulnar artery – had been completely sliced through.

Mr Halpin said: “Arteries in the wrist are of a matchstick thickness and severing them does not lead to life-threatening blood loss. When the artery is completely transected, as apparently happened here in this case, it retracts and the blood begins to clot. This limits the blood loss.”

Mr Halpin’s views are supported by diagnostic radiologist Stephen Frost and Searle Sennett, a specialist in anaesthesiology. Mr Halpin is a former consultant at Torbay Hospital in Devon. Mr Sennett is a fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Mr Frost is a former consultant at Westminster Hospital.

Dr Kelly was found to have taken the painkiller Co-proxamol – but only a small amount. The three specialists said: “We dispute that Dr Kelly died from haemorrhage or from Co-proxamol ingestion or both.” Today Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner, who is considering holding a full inquest, revealed he had received “numerous” letters questioning the account given to the Inquiry.

Mr Gardiner formally handed over powers of his inquest to Lord Hutton after the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, used a little known law to order that it be combined with the public inquiry. “I expect to have a hearing in March at which I will make a ruling”, said Mr Gardiner today [Tues 27th].