Today, 28th February 2011, is a deadline for his receiving information relating to a possible application to the High Court for an order that an inquest be held into the death of Dr. David Kelly.
Over the next few days I'll publicly post the text of other communications to the Attorney General on this matter.
The title of my email to the Attorney General is:
David Kelly - Did Andrew Gilligan fabricate evidence?
The text of the email is as follows:
Mr McGinty,
This email is intended for the attention of the Attorney General in connection with a possible application to the High Court that an inquest be held into the death of Dr. David Kelly.
In terms of a possible application to the High Court the inquiry by Lord Hutton into the actions of Andrew Gilligan is, I suggest, further evidence of insufficiency of inquiry, in the meaning of Section 13 of the Coroner's Act 1988.
A specific point on which important questions remain outstanding relates to a document purported to be notes of a meeting with David Kelly on 22nd May 2003 which was automatically timestamped 21st May 2003.
There are two explanation of this finding which come to mind:
1. The clock on Andrew Gilligan's personal organiser was significantly in error.
2. Andrew Gilligan "set up" Dr. Kelly by making a "recording" of what Dr. Kelly allegedly said, a day before he had opportunity to say it. In other words, the evidence of Andrew Gilligan as to what David Kelly allegedly said on 22nd May 2003 is, at least in part, fabricated. If that were true, then "The Real Source" remains unidentified.
Andrew Gilligan, presumably in an attempt to rebut a charge of fabricating his notes, commissioned an inquiry by Edward Wilding. I imagine that a BBC technician identified the date discrepancy to which I referred above.
I am unsure whether Mr. Wilding ever completed his report. Certainly, I could not locate any final report on the Hutton Inquiry web site. Nor indeed any draft report by Mr. Wilding.
I suspect that Lord Hutton was, technically, way out of his depth in comprehending Mr. Wilding's evidence.
However, Mr. Wilding did indicate that to definitively resolve the question would require access to further backups.
Mr Wilding in his oral evidence said that access to backups made separately by Mr. Gilligan would be required to definitively resolve the question. Mr. Gilligan refused access to those backups on grounds of "confidentiality".
See pages 180-182 here http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/transcripts/hearing-trans38.htm
19 Q. Did you find out whether or not Mr Gilligan had saved
20 this material to any other document at the time or any
21 other computer at the time?
22 A. Yes, on 27th August when I was instructed I asked
23 Mr Gilligan about the back up system that he used. And
24 he regularly used to back up the organiser, the data
25 from the organiser to a laptop computer. And it was my
181
1 concern on the 27th that it would be useful to look at
2 that data as well.
3 Q. Have you been given access to that by Mr Gilligan?
4 A. On the evening of the 27th, on grounds of the
5 confidentiality of the data, it was decided that I would
6 be only given access to the organiser itself.
7 Q. So you were not even able to do what you did with the
8 organiser on that computer material?
9 A. No.
Andrew Gilligan, in effect, refused the Hutton Inquiry access to those backups.
Lord Hutton failed to take any steps to resolve the matter.
Due to Lord Hutton's insufficiency of inquiry, the question remains open as to whether Andrew Gilligan may have fabricated evidence.
The Attorney General will recall David Broucher's evidence to Hutton that late in February 2003 that David Kelly expected, in certain circumstances, to be found "dead in the woods". Therefore events as early as May 2003 may be relevant to the murder of Dr. David Kelly in July 2003.
We know that on another occasion Andrew Gilligan was willing to "set up" David Kelly by feeding information to the Foreign Affairs Committee for its meeting on 15th July 2003. See pages 2 and 3 here, http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/fac/fac_6_0001to0003.pdf , for the text of Andrew Gilligan's email to which I refer.
I understand that Mr. Gilligan later apologised for his actions in that respect.
I would be grateful if you would confirm receipt of this email and that the information contained in it will be drawn to the attention of the Attorney General.
In the interests of transparency I am copying this email to Andrew Gilligan. Separately, I have recently requested from Mr. Gilligan copies of the written report produced by Edward Wilding, so far without response. I also ask Mr. Gilligan to ensure that this important evidence is not somehow "accidentally" destroyed.
I am copying this email to chief officers at Thames Valley Police in the context of my report to them that David Kelly may have been murdered (Thames Valley Police URN 514 of 28/10/10 refers). I also ask that Thames Valley Police approach Mr. Gilligan to take all evidence relevant to this potentially important question into safe keeping.
Thank you.
(Dr) Andrew Watt
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