The Death of David Kelly - Creating a Summary of why an inquest is needed

Anyone who has spent time inquiring into the death of David Kelly soon realises that the volume of information is daunting.

I'm considering creating a Summary to help ease the casual reader into why there is a need for an inquest into the death of David Kelly.

Below is some draft text about questions that should have been asked and answered by the Hutton Inquiry and/or Thames Valley Police but weren't.

The document may go to the Attorney General (hence the terms in square brackets in the draft).

If you think there are further questions to add please feel free to make suggestions via a Comment on this post.

I'd like to make the document as clear and comprehensive as possible.

The draft is rough currently but hopefully you'll get the idea of what I want to produce as one section of a Summary document.

Following the discovery of a body at Harrowdown Hill an unbiased investigation would carefully examine each of the following possibilities in the light of the available evidence:

1. Natural causes
2. Accidental death
3. Suicide
4. Murder (including, in the circumstances pertaining to Dr. Kelly, the possibility of murder dressed up as suicide).

The conclusion of the Hutton Inquiry was that Dr. David Kelly killed himself as a result of ingesting co-proxamol tablets and inflicting wounds on his left wrist which resulted in fatal haemorrhage.

Following are some questions where I believe that investigation at the Hutton Inquiry and the subsequent cursory inquest was materially deficient since it failed to provide appropriately evidenced answers to questions such as the following:

* Did David Kelly ingest any co-proxamol tablets? The answer is that we don't know (Dr. Allan, toxicologist, failed to measure dextropropoxyphene concentrations in the stomach. [INSUFFICIENCY OF INQUIRY]) Lord Hutton states that Dr. Allan made such measurements but he is incorrect.

* Did David Kelly obtain the co-proxamol tablets from his home? We don't know. Janice Kelly wasn't asked, for example, if any tablets were missing from her store of co-proxamol. [INSUFFICIENCY OF INQUIRY]

* How many co-proxamol tablets were in the blister packs when Dr. Kelly obtained them? The answer is that we don't know. No evidence is presented to resolve the uncertainty.

* Was it possible for Dr. Kelly to swallow a hypothetical 29 co-proxamol tablets with a water supply of only ??? ml? We don't know. Lord Hutton didn't address the question nor did he nor Dr. Hunt identify the water supply available to Dr. Kelly as being inadequate to swallow such a large number of co-proxamol tablets. [INSUFFICIENCY OF INQUIRY] Lord Hutton did not establish that only a maximum of ??? ml had been taken from the 500ml water bottle. That was established by recent Freedom of Information requests. [NEW EVIDENCE]

* Did Dr. Kelly ever handle the blister packs of co-proxamol tablets found in the pocket of his jacket? The evidence suggests that he did not since no fingerprints were recovered from the blister packs tested for fingerprints.

* Was Dr. Kelly physically capable of using his right arm to inflict wounds on his left wrist? There is cause to doubt this (scar on right elbow, likely evidence of past injury / operation) and oral testimony (post-Hutton) that David Kelly couldn't cut steak with his right arm [NEW EVIDENCE]. This evidence was stated as having been given to Thames Valley Police and appears to have been concealed from Lord Hutton by ACC Michael Page [IRREGULARITY OF PROCESS].

* Did Dr. Kelly hold the knife found beside his body? It seems unlikely that he did since no fingerprints were found on the knife.

* Did the knife found beside the body belong to Dr. Kelly? There is no reliable evidence that it did. The knife was never shown to, for example, a member of his family.

* Did the knife found beside the body inflict the wounds on the left wrist? No evidence is presented that it did. No forensic evidence is presented to demonstrate that the knife found was the weapon which produced the wounds. [INSUFFICIENCY OF INQUIRY]

* How much blood did Dr. Kelly lose as a result of the wounds on the left wrist? We don't know. The amount of blood lost is not recorded by Dr. Hunt or any of the forensic scientists who attented the scene. Further, no attempt was made to measure the blood loss. [INSUFFICIENCY OF INQUIRY]