Wednesday 11 May 2011

The Death of David Kelly - Did a late evening search by neighbours on 17th July 2003 happen?

Contemporary newspaper reports, for example Kelly told wife this wasn't world he wanted, refer to what seems to have been a late evening search for David Kelly by neighbours on 17th July 2003.

The article linked to above includes this quote:


Susan Melling, a neighbour, said the farmer, Mr Weaver, knocked on their door and her husband joined him in the search party.

"Mr Weaver called around and told us what had happened," she said. "He said that he had seen Dr Kelly on his walk on Thursday afternoon because he was near his farmland at the time.

"He was seen on the other side of the A420 road which runs just north of the village. My husband told me they would be searching all the way to the village of Longworth, which was the nearest village to where he was heading."

The search went on into the early hours, before it was resumed after daylight yesterday, with a team of 70 joining the operation organised by Thames Valley Police.


Did such a search happen?

If it did, it's totally invisible in the evidence of Janice Kelly and Rachel Kelly. Why?

8 comments:

  1. I may have been a little harsh on Lord Hutton in previous posts I had assumed that he was a conniving, mendacious, corrupt agent of the police state but I may be wrong.

    He may have lost his marbles and couldn't help himself. Certainly chapter 5 of his report suggests that he might not be all there.

    http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/report/chapter05.htm

    It begins

    "Dr Kelly did not return from his walk and Mrs Kelly, who was joined by two of her daughters during the course of the evening (her third daughter being in Scotland) became increasingly worried about him. Mrs Kelly's two daughters went out separately in their cars to look for their father on the roads and lanes along which he might have been walking, but when they had found no trace of him they rang the police about 12.20am on Friday 18 July."

    Where did that come from?

    It continues

    "The Thames Valley Police began an immediate search for Dr Kelly and the search operation was carried out with great efficiency."

    Can failing to find anything and the police not beginning their search before the civilian search team found the body really be described as "great efficiency"?

    And then he get mixed up about sitting up and lying down

    "She saw the body of a man at the base of the tree with his head and shoulders slumped back against it"

    Immediately followed by

    “On the way back to their car they met three other police officers who themselves had been engaged in searching the area and Mr Chapman told them that they had found the body. Mr Chapman then took one of the police officers, Detective Constable Coe, to show him where the body was. Mr Chapman showed Detective Constable Coe the body lying on its back"

    Lord Hutton did seem to accept that DC Coe was telling porkies about who was with him but the rest of the diatribe is just bonkers.

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  2. The farmer was in fact Mr Weaving (not Weaver)and I believe that he may have since passed away.

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  3. Andrew,
    What Janice Kelly told the media, directly or indirectly immedately following the morning of July 18 and what she told the Hutton Inquiry are sometimes quite different.

    For example.

    BBC Online reported on 19 July 2003
    On Thursday, before leaving his Oxfordshire home for the last time, Dr Kelly had worked on a report he said he owed the Foreign Office and sent some e-mails to friends, his wife, Janice, told the New York Times.
    The newspaper said a second e-mail, sent by Dr Kelly to an associate, was "combative".


    Yet when she arrives at the Hutton Inquiry, we have

    . No, no. He could not put two sentences together. He could not talk at all.
    or
    Q. Did he say anything?
    A. No, he just sat and he looked really very tired

    or
    But a few minutes later he went to sit in the
    5 sitting room all by himself without saying anything,

    after allegedly sending all his emails and completing his parliamentary answers.

    It just does not add up.

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  4. Sylvia,

    You're right but I quoted the Scotsman article accurately.

    The name of Paul Weaving causes problems elsewhere too.

    He appears to be referred to as "Paul Wearing" in this document reference on the Thames Valley Police Evidence page on the Hutton Web site:

    Minute to Paul Wearing 19/07/03 - not for release - Police operational information TVP/3/0098 - 0099

    It seems that Thames Valley Police were communicating with Paul Weaving on 19th July 2003.

    But there is no witness statement from him on the Hutton web site.

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  5. Felix,

    A great deal doesn't add up regarding Janice Kelly's evidence to the Hutton Inquiry.

    I'm hoping to post some further information soon on her evidence about the events of 17th July 2003.

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  6. Andrew

    I don't think we can assume that Paul Weaving and Paul Wearing are one and the same person!

    It could be a typo but I don't really believe that, particularly as "v" and "r" aren't immediately adjacent on a keyboard. Nor do I believe that the police would send him a "Minute".

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  7. Brian,

    However, if the minute were written in response to a manuscript note or document of some kind it is easy to confuse a "v" and an "r".

    To my mind that remains a possibility.

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  8. Brian, I think it does refer to Weaving. There are other lapses of orthography in the evidence. For instance, TVP/1/0051-2 refers not to Simon Bustary but Bustany.(I think they are in New Zealand now)

    The use of a minute of evidence relating to Paul Weaving is quite unusual in this inquiry.

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