David Kelly

Dr. David Christopher Kelly CMG (May 17, 1944 – July 17, 2003) was an employee of the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), an expert in biological warfare, and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. His talk with a journalist about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq inadvertently caused a major political scandal, and he was found dead days after appearing before a Parliamentary committee investigating it. The Hutton Inquiry, a public inquiry into his death, found that he had committed suicide.

Alternative theories

Although suicide was officially accepted as the cause of death, some medical experts have raised doubts, suggesting that the evidence does not back this up. The most detailed objection was provided in a letter from three medical doctors published in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1131833,00.html, re-inforced by support from two other senior physicians in a later letter to the Guardian http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1146232,00.html. These doctors argued that the autopsy finding of a transected ulnar artery could not have caused a degree of blood loss that would kill someone, particularly when outside in the cold (as opposed to e.g. in a warm bath which would prevent the artery from vascoconstricting). Further, this conflicted with the minimal amount of blood found at the scene. They also contended that the amount of co-proxamol found was only about a third of what would normally be fatal. Dr Rouse, a British epidemiologist wrote to the BMJ pointing out that the act of commiting suicide by severing wrist arteries is an extremely rare occurrence in a 59 year old man with no previous psychiatric history http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/326/7384/294#49907.

Related Topics:
The Guardian - Autopsy - Ulnar artery - Vascoconstrict - Epidemiologist - BMJ

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Dave Bartlett and Vanessa Hunt, the two paramedics who were called to the scene of Kelly's death, have since gone public with their view that there was not enough blood at the location to justify the belief that he died from blood loss. Bartlett and Hunt told The Guardian that they saw a small amount of blood on plants near Kelly's body and a patch of blood the size of a coin on his trousers. They said they would expect to find several pints of blood at the scene of a suicide involving an arterial cut http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4089729.stm http://www.guardian.co.uk/hutton/story/0,13822,1372077,00.html.

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Eerily, during the Hutton inquiry, David Broucher, a British ambassador, reported a conversation he recalled having with Dr Kelly at a Geneva meeting in February 2003. Broucher had asked Kelly what would happen if Iraq were invaded, and Kelly had replied, 'I will probably be found dead in the woods.'

Related Topics:
David Broucher - Geneva

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However, two of Britain's top forensic pathologists, Professor Chris Milroy and Professor Guy Rutty, dismissed the paramedics' claims, saying it is hard to judge blood loss from the scene of a death, as some blood may have seeped into the ground. Professor Milroy also told The Guardian that Kelly's heart condition may have made it hard for him to sustain any significant degree of blood loss. http://www.guardian.co.uk/hutton/story/0,13822,1372404,00.html, although Dr Kelly had been able to go for long walks, been completely asymptomatic and no evidence of myocardial infarction had been found on autopsy.

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Incidental and anecdotal information has also been quoted to raise doubts that Dr Kelly committed suicide: He hated taking medication in tablet form, his faith forbade suicide and he appeared in good spirits around the time of his death.

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The Hutton Inquiry took priority over an inquest, which would normally be required into a suspicious death http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/detail.asp?ReleaseID=90793&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True. The Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner considered the issue again in March 2004. After reviewing evidence that had not been presented to the Hutton Inquiry, Gardiner decided that there was no need for further investigation. This conclusion did not satisfy those who had raised doubts, but there has been no alternative explanation for Kelly's death.

Related Topics:
Inquest - 2004

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