A little qWiki background
David Christopher Kelly, CMG (14 May 1944 – 17 July 2003) was a British scientist and expert on biological warfare, employed by the British Ministry of Defence, and formerly a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. He came to public attention in July 2003 when an unauthorised discussion he had off the record with a BBC journalist, Andrew Gilligan—about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq—was cited by the journalist and led to a major controversy. Kelly's name became known to the media as Gilligan's source, and he was called to appear on 15 July before the parliamentary foreign affairs select committee, which was investigating the issues Gilligan had reported. Kelly was questioned aggressively about his actions. He was found dead two days later.[...]
Tony Blair's government set up the Hutton Inquiry, a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death. This determined that Kelly had committed suicide, the pathologist who conducted the postmortem examination giving the cause of death as "haemorrhage due to incised wounds of the left wrist" in combination with "coproxamol ingestion and coronary artery atherosclerosis". Lord Hutton also decided that evidence related to the death, including the post-mortem report and photographs of the body, should remain classified for 70 years. In October 2010, Hutton explained that he had done so to protect the wife and daughters of Kelly from the distress of further media reports about the death.
Yeah, right. So considerate.
Anyway, some people were not satisfied.
There has not been an inquest into the death of Kelly, the government scientist who killed himself after being identified as the source of the BBC report claiming that Tony Blair's government "sexed up" the dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, because the Hutton inquiry took over the role of considering the cause of his death.But some doctors, the doctors, led by Stephen Frost, have complained that Hutton only spent half a day considering the cause of Kelly's death. They claim that the Hutton's conclusion that Kelly committed suicide was "unsafe".
[...]
Having considered the material, [Dominic Grieve, the attorney general] thinks that the evidence that Kelly took his own life is "overwhelmingly strong". [...]Grieve says it is inconceivable that a fresh inquest would reject the conclusion that Kelly killed himself.
[...]
He says he has considered this in a non-partisan way. He has consulted experts, including medical experts. He also consulted Lord Hutton, the Oxfordshire coroner and the Thames Valley police.
And Lord Hutton didn’t think he ought to have an inquest poking around in his suspicious “inquiry” I suppose.
Hmmmmm. That’s not in the least suspicious.Kelly's body was found on the morning of 18 July 2003. It appeared Kelly had slit his wrist. But Thames Valley police launched a homicide investigation.An inquest was opened. But the then Lord Chancellor (Lord Falconer) transferred the powers of the inquest to the Hutton inquiry.
He says those demanding a fresh inquest cited apparent inconsistencies in the evidence given to the Hutton inquiry.But it is not unusual for there to be minor discrepancies in the evidence given to a court, he says.
This is where we go back to July 2006.
The tragic story began in May 2003 when BBC radio journalist Andrew Gilligan alleged that the Government had deliberately 'sexed up' a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to justify an invasion.The Government went on the offensive and eventually exposed Dr Kelly as the BBC man's source.
[...]
Kelly did not commit suicide and may have been the victim of a murder and subsequent coverup, according to a campaigning MP.
Norman Baker has spent six months investigating the death of the Government weapons expert, found dead in an Oxfordshire wood three years ago.
[...]
Mr Baker - who stepped down from the Liberal Democrat front bench to carry out his investigation - published his preliminary results and called for a new public inquiry.
His concerns begin with the method of Dr Kelly's supposed suicide, cutting a minor artery with a blunt gardening knife.
He would have been the only person that year to have successfully killed themselves that way in the UK.
[...]
Mr Baker's investigation comes after three senior doctors claimed the official cause of death - a severed ulnar artery in the wrist - was extremely unlikely to be fatal.
[...]
The scientist's family and friends insist he had shown no sign of feeling suicidal. Emails and the minutes of meetings he attended also showed him behaving perfectly normally - and he was looking forward to his daughter's wedding.
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Two days before his death, he made jokes at a Government committee meeting. On the day he disappeared, he spoke of returning to Iraq in the future.
[...]
There are also basic questions about the police investigation - including the appearance beside Dr Kelly's body of a bottle of water, knife and watch which the people who found him say they did not see.
[...]
An inquest into Dr Kelly's death was opened, but never concluded as the Hutton Inquiry was deemed to have served the same purpose. Mr Baker criticises this decision, arguing that, unlike an inquest, the Hutton Inquiry did not have the power to subpoena witnesses or make them give evidence under oath.
Precisely the point. But, as we said, some people just will not give up. So that’s why we have today…
A further inquest will not be held into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly, the attorney-general has announced.Dominic Grieve told MPs that he had "no reasonable basis" for making an application for an inquest to the high court because "there is no possibility that at an inquest a verdict other than suicide would be returned".
Nope. No possibility. I’m sure he’s right about that.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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