Friday 5 November 2010

The death of David Kelly - If his body could be carried out then it could have been carried in

Once the forensic pathologist, Nicholas Hunt, had completed the examination of the body of David Kelly at the scene where it was found, it was necessary for the body to be removed to a suitable place so that a forensic postmortem could be carried out.

Mr Roy Green, forensic biologist, gave the following testimony on the afternoon of Wednesday 3rd September 2003 on Page 148.

8 MR DINGEMANS: Were you present while any other relevant
9 discoveries were made?
10 A. I do not believe so. I was there from the time that
11 Dr Kelly was in the blue tent till the time just before
12 the body was about to be removed. As I left, the hearse
13 was approaching. So it was my understanding that the
14 body was then going to be taken for the post-mortem.
15 Q. That concluded your investigations on the day, did it?
16 A. On that day, yes.


We learn that Dr. Kelly's body was to be removed in a hearse. At approximately 19.00 on Friday 18th July 2003.

My interpretation of Mr. Green's words is that the hearse reached a point on the track from which it was some 50 to 70 yards to the scene where the body had been found.

We learn from the forensic pathologist's postmortem report, Page 6,


Received in a white signature-sealed bodybag and wrapped in a black plastic sheet was the body I recognised from the scene. Head and hand bags were in place.


It is not explicitly stated that Dr. Kelly's body was caried out from the scene inside the bodybag, but that appears the only credible explanation.

To the best of my knowledge nobody at the Hutton Inquiry asked this basic question:

If the body of David Kelly could be carried from the scene to the track, couldn't it earlier have equally been carried from the track to the scene?

I'm not aware of any evidence either in the written documents or in the oral transcripts which excludes that possibility that Dr. Kelly's body was carried to the scene where it was found.

Does such evidence exist?

Similarly, if the hearse could be driven up the track to collect the body of David Kelly, what evidence exists to demonstrate that another vehicle couldn't have been driven up the track to a similar spot prior to David Kelly's body being then carried from the track to the scene where it was found?

The truly worrying aspect is that Thames Valley Police seem to have acted in ways which, predictably, would destroy the evidence of any vehicle having been at that scene. See my earlier post, The Death of David Kelly - How much evidence did Thames Valley Police destroy?, for further discussion of part of that issue.

In other words, the actions of Thames Valley Police could readily be predicted to destroy evidence of the presence of the vehicle of a third party at or close to the point where David Kelly's body might have been carried to where it had been found.

Is it any surprise in that context that no evidence of third party involvement had, so we're told, been found?

7 comments:

  1. Of course the body could be carried in, just as it was carried out, and it probably was!
    But I doubt if a vehicle delivered the body in the same way that the hearse took it away.
    The reason I say that is quite simple. I have done much research and I have come to the conclusion that it would have been too easy for that vehicle to have been seen. There were people in and around the wood until dark on the day DK went missing, and the track that leads up to the wood is clearly visible from the village. I have been assured by a very vigilant member of the community that no vehicles passed that way.
    But of course nobody can say the same about vehicles approaching form the other direction.
    If you take the A415 out of Standlake towards Southmoor about 100metres past the last house on your left on the opposite side of the road there is a track. A track that has no houses near it, a track that has no buildings near it, a track that soon disappears from view behind some tall trees, a track that appears to go nowhere apart from the river Thames.
    Yes you’ve guessed it; this track comes out on the opposite side of the river to the one that leads from the river up to Harrowdown Wood. At this point there are no house even in view, let alone any houses nearby.
    And of course crossing the river would have been no problem for our assailants, they have a boat waiting! Not only can the boat be used to get the body across the river but the people on the boat (the people Thames Valley Police refer to as Holidaymakers) could give the guys in the van a quick call when the coast was clear. I would estimate sometime between midnight on the 17th and 2.00am. on the 18th of July.
    I walked from the river up to the wood where the body was found, it took me 8 minutes.

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  2. Ffrank,

    There is a lot in your comment that merits more detailed exploration and assessment.

    Are you able to put the information online in more detail? Perhaps via a blog?

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  3. Frank,

    A timeline of the movements during 17th July 2003 would be particularly useful.

    Of course, Thames Valley Police should have collected that information and, I would have hoped, given it in evidence to the Hutton Inquiry.

    We know that they did not.

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  4. If you put the grid reference SP389012 into this website you can see the path clearly. I am not sure how it accesses the river. But one could imagine an old fashioned ferry there once upon a time.
    I guess this photo is taken from the footpath off to the west of the main path. Have you walked this ?former gravel pit access? path, which is not an official right of way?

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  5. Felix,

    An alternative way to display the Ordnance Survey maps is to go to http://www.streetmap.co.uk/.

    In the search box type "Harrowdown Hill" (without the quotes) in the Search box.

    In the page which displays,
    http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=438500&y=200500&z=120&sv=Harrowdown+Hill&st=3&tl=Map+of+Harrowdown+Hill,+Oxfordshire+[Hill/Mountain]&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf

    click in the Zoom Control (towards the lower right of the page) on Zoom Level 3.

    Then you can drag the map around.

    There is also an option to click on a larger map size (at the bottom right of the page).

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  6. Frank,

    The scenario you describe would obviously have required significant pre-planning.

    Would the "holidaymakers" have stayed around in the boat to be seen (as it turned out) by Louise Holmes and Paul Chapman?

    Carrying a body for a distance equivalent to an 8 minute walk would be no trivial task. It assumes some very fit individuals are doing the carrying.

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  7. I am sure they were fit, some sort of military training, I would think.
    The holidaymakers had to stay put in their boat, if they went up stream, they would have to start their engine (making a noise) plus a short distance upstream there is a set of locks, not something you would want to navigate in the dark!
    If they floated downstream in the early hours of the morning they would come to an area where there was a lot of activity (the Maybush at Newbridge, where the A415 crosses the river) Here there were a lot of boats moored, and there is a campsite on the side of the river, and it’s a popular fishing spot.…..in other words they would have almost certainly been seen……and that may have aroused suspicions.
    I think they waited until the next morning then leisurely floated downstream past all the other holidaymakers at Newbridge.
    If you want to know where I think they went from there I would prefer you emailed me, this site is too public.

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