Saturday 12 February 2011

The Death of David Kelly - Is Janice Kelly lying about the "Honours" letter?

In her evidence to the Hutton Inquiry, Janice Kelly is questioned about a document supposedly considering a possible recommendation of David Kelly for an honour.

The relevant oral testimony and questioning is from the morning of 1st September 2003:


11 Q. We have a document that you very kindly produced in May.
12 Can I show it to you? It is FAM/5/1. I think we are
13 going to lose your picture and see the document. Can
14 you tell me a bit about where you found this document?
15 A. I am still waiting to see it.
16 Q. Okay. So are we. We have now lost you. I think we are
17 going to get something on the screen. I hope you get
18 the same -- we are not going to get anything on the
19 screen so we will have your picture back, if we may.
20 It is a document that has been produced which is
21 dated 9th May. Can you tell us where you found that?
22 A. Can you give me a bit more information about it?
23 Q. It is from Eric Mattey, Honour's Secretary, dated
24 9th May 2003.
25 A. Is this the one where it was scribbled at the top

10
1 left-hand corner?
2 Q. Yes, there is some writing in the top right-hand corner
3 A. This is something we found in his filing cabinet
4 a couple of weeks ago or so. It was headed -- this was
5 a trawl for people to be on the New Year's Honours List.
6 Q. In 2004?
7 A. And scribbled in the top left-hand corner was:
8 "How about David Kelly? Iraq is topical."
9 Q. Iraq being topical in handwriting. The note appears to
10 be dated 14th May.
11 A. That is right.
12 Q. You found that, where do you say?
13 A. In his filing cabinet. There were a few files left
14 after the police had been and taken what they needed.
15 Q. And did he discuss that with you at all?
16 A. No, he had not mentioned that. It was headed
17 "confidential".
18 Q. Right.
19 LORD HUTTON: Mrs Kelly, what was the honour suggested?
20 A. I do not believe there was an honour suggested. He had
21 already got a CMG in 1996. So it might well have been
22 a knighthood, I really do not know.
23 LORD HUTTON: I see. Thank you very much.


The document referred to is FAM/5/0001 - 0005.

The document appears to be security classified as "Restricted".

Quite simply Thames Valley Police, if they were thorough and competent, should have removed the document during the search on Saturday 19th July 2003.

So how could it be that Janice Kelly found a classified document as she describes?

It seems to me either that Janice Kelly is lying or Thames Valley Police were incompetent.

1 comment:

  1. The fax dates on the document give rise to suspicion 29 Aug & 1st Sep 9.41 , Mrs Kelly begins her evidence at 10.30.

    Another thing, unrelated, or possibly related to Cornwall; just before the quote from the inquiry reproduced here, we have Mrs Kelly saying that she has lost her diary for that time. Funny that! Come on TV plod, give it back! Let Mrs K keep some real memories.

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