The Murder Of Dr. David Kelly
Part One of Two
Medium
Rare
By Jim Rarey
10-14-3
- =(This first part lays out the case from the evidence
presented in the Hutton inquiry why the death of Dr. David Kelly was not
by suicide. Part two will show the reasons, in this writer�s opinion,
Dr. Kelly was killed.)
On Thursday, July 17th sometime between 3
and 3:30pm, Dr. David Kelly started out on his usual afternoon walk.
About 18 hours later, searchers found his body, left wrist slit, in a
secluded lane on Harrowdown Hill. Kelly, the UK's premier
microbiologist, was in the center of a political maelstrom having been
identified as the 'leak' in information about the 'dossier' Prime
Minister Tony Blair had used to justify the war against
Iraq.
While the Hutton inquiry appears set to declare Kelly's
death a suicide and the national media are already treating it as a
given, there are numerous red flags raised in the testimony and evidence
at the inquiry itself.
Kelly's body was likely moved from where
he died to the site where two search volunteers with a search dog found
it. The body was propped up against a tree according to the testimony of
both volunteers. The volunteers reported the find to police
headquarters, Thames Valley Police (TVP) and then left the scene. On
their way back to their car, they met three 'police' officers, one of
them named Detective Constable Graham Peter Coe.
Coe and his men
were alone at the site for 25-30 minutes before the first police
actually assigned to search the area arrived (Police Constables Sawyer
and Franklin) and took charge of the scene from Coe. They found the body
flat on its back a short distance from the tree, as did all subsequent
witnesses.
A logical explanation is that Dr. Kelly died at a
different site and the body was transported to the place it was found.
This is buttressed by the medical findings of livor mortis (post mortem
lividity), which indicates that Kelly died on his back, or at least was
moved to that position shortly after his death. Propping the body
against the tree was a mistake that had to be rectified.
The
search dog and its handler must have interrupted whoever was assigned to
go back and move the body to its back before it was done. After the
volunteers left the scene the body was moved to its back while DC Coe
was at the scene.
Five witnesses said in their testimony that two
men accompanied Coe. Yet, in his testimony, Coe maintained there was
only one other beside himself. He was not questioned about the
discrepancy.
Researchers, including this writer, assume the
presence of the 'third man' could not be satisfactorily explained and so
was being denied.
Additionally, Coe's explanation of why he was
in the area is unsubstantiated. To the contrary, when PC Franklin was
asked if Coe was part of the search team he responded, 'No. He was at
the scene. I had no idea what he was doing there or why he was there. He
was just at the scene when PC Sawyer and I arrived.'
Franklin was
responsible for coordinating the search with the chief investigating
officer and then turning it over to Sawyer to assemble the search team
and take them to the assigned area. They were just starting to leave the
station (about 9am on the 18th) to be the first search team on the
ground (excepting the volunteers with the search dog) when they got word
the body had been found.
A second red flag is the nature of the
wounds on Kelly's wrist. Dr. Nicholas Hunt, who performed the autopsy,
testified there were several superficial 'scratches' or cuts on the
wrist and one deep wound that severed the ulnar artery but not the
radial artery.
The fact that the ulnar artery was severed, but
not the radial artery, strongly suggests that the knife wound was
inflicted drawing the blade from the inside of the wrist (the little
finger side closest to the body) to the outside where the radial artery
is located much closer to the surface of the skin than is the ulnar
artery. For those familiar with first aid, the radial artery is the one
used to determine the pulse rate.
Just hold your left arm out
with the palm up and see how difficult it would be to slash across the
wrist avoiding the radial artery while severing the ulnar artery.
However, a second person situated to the left of Kelly who held or
picked up the arm and slashed across the wrist would start on the inside
of the wrist severing the ulnar artery first.
A reasonably
competent medical examiner or forensic pathologist would certainly be
able to determine in which direction the knife was drawn across the
wrist. That question was never asked nor the answer volunteered. In
fact, a complete autopsy report would state in which direction the
wounds were inflicted. The coroner�s inquest was never completed as it
was preempted by the Hutton inquiry and the autopsy report will not be
made public. Neither will the toxicology report.
Two paramedics
who arrived by ambulance at the same time as Franklin and Sawyer (some
time after 9am) and accompanied them to where the body was located.
After checking the eyes and signs of a pulse or breathing, they attached
four electro-cardiogram pads to Kelly's chest and hooked them up to a
portable electro-cardiograph. When no signs of heart activity were found
they unofficially confirmed death. One paramedic (Vanessa Hunt) said the
Police asked them to leave the pads on the body. The other paramedic
(David Bartlett) said they always left the pads on the body.
Both
paramedics testified that DC Coe had two men with him. Curiously, both
also volunteered that there was a surprisingly small amount of blood at
the scene for an artery having been severed.
When the forensic
pathologist (Dr. Nicholas Hunt) who performed the autopsy testified, he
described copious amounts of blood at the scene. He also described
scratches and bruises that Kelly 'stumbling around' in the heavy
underbrush may have caused. He said there was no indication of a
struggle or Kelly having been forcibly restrained.
However, the
police made an extensive search of the area and found no indication of
anyone, including Kelly, having been in the heavy
underbrush.
Strangely, none of the witnesses mentioned anything
about rigor mortis (stiffening of the body) which is useful in setting
the approximate time of death. Even Dr. Hunt, when was asked directly
what changes on the body he observed that would have happened after
death, failed to mention rigor mortis. He only named livor mortis. Hunt
set the time of death within a range of 4:15pm on the 17th to 1:15am the
next morning. He based the estimate on body temperature which he did not
take until 7:15pm on the 19th, some seven hours after he arrived on the
scene.
A forensic biologist (Roy James Green) had been asked to
examine the scene. He said the amount of blood he saw was consistent
with a severed artery. Green works for the same private company
(Forensic Alliance) as Dr. Hunt. A majority of the company's work is
done for police organizations.
The afternoon of the 18th DC Coe
turned up at the Kelly residence accompanied by a man identified only as
'an attachment,' who acted as an 'exhibits officer' presumably
collecting documents in behalf of some other government
agency.
Detective Constable Coe and those accompanying him are
somewhat of a mystery. There are no corroborating witnesses to any of
his actions to which he testified (other than 'just being there' at the
scene where the body was found).
However, on a listing of
evidence provided to the Hutton inquiry by Thames Valley Police is a
reference to a document described thusly, 'TVP Tactical Support Major
Incident Policy Book�Between 1430 17.07.03 and 930 18.07.03. DCI Alan
Young. It is labeled �not for release - Police operational information.'
Many of the exhibits are labeled that way or are not to be released as
personal information.
The police took over 300 statements from
witnesses but less than 70 were forwarded to the Hutton inquiry. Witness
statements were not to be released (even to the inquiry) unless the
witness signed an authorization permitting it. TVP also withheld witness
interviews they did not consider 'relevant' to the inquiry. Witnesses
were not put under oath so it is impossible for the public to know if
their public statements are at variance with what they told police. The
'tactical support' document must have been considered relevant to the
inquiry on Kelly's death or it wouldn't have been forwarded.
So
this 'tactical support' began at 2:30pm on the 17th, about one hour
before Dr. Kelly left the house on his final walk. It ended at 9:30am
the following morning about the time DC Coe and his men left the death
scene. The obvious question is, to what was TVP giving tactical support?
The name given the effort was 'Operation Mason.'
(In part two of
this report, we will lay out some of the reasons (that you won't see in
the national media) Dr. Kelly could not be allowed to live.)
(In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.)
-
- Permission is granted to reproduce this article in its
entirety.
-
- The author is a freelance writer based in Romulus,
Michigan. He is a former newspaper editor and investigative reporter, a
retired customs administrator and accountant, and a student of history
and the U.S. Constitution.
-
- If you would like to receive Medium Rare articles
directly, please contact the author at mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED][EMAIL PROTECTED]
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