Dr Kelly 'couldn't have slit his wrist as he was too weak'

Dr Kelly 'couldn't have slit his wrist as he was too weak'

By Miles Goslett
Last updated at 10:30 PM on 30th June 2010


Dramatic new testimony has heaped pressure on ministers to reopen the investigation into the death of Dr David Kelly.

A female colleague claims that the UN weapons inspector could not have committed suicide as claimed, as he was too weak to cut his own wrist.

Mai Pedersen, a U.S. Air Force officer who served with Dr Kelly's inspection team in Iraq, said a hand and arm injury meant that the 59-year-old even 'had difficulty cutting his own steak'.
A female colleague claims Dr David Kelly could not have committed suicide as claimed, as he was too weak to cut his own wrist

A female colleague claims Dr David Kelly could not have committed suicide as claimed, as he was too weak to cut his own wrist

Dr Kelly was found dead in woods near his home in 2003 after the Government exposed him as the source of a BBC report questioning Tony Blair's government's case for war in Iraq.

In a letter to the new Attorney General Dominic Grieve through her lawyers, Miss Pedersen also said Dr Kelly had difficulty swallowing pills, casting serious doubt on the Hutton Inquiry conclusion that he swallowed 29 painkillers before slitting his left wrist.

Campaigners hope her extraordinary intervention will convince ministers of the need for a new investigation. Mr Grieve has already indicated that he believes the case could merit a further inquiry.

Had she testified at the Hutton Inquiry, Miss Pedersen would have revealed that in the months leading up to his death Dr Kelly was unable to use his right hand for basic tasks requiring any strength such as slicing food because of a painful elbow injury.

Miss Pedersen says he would therefore have had to be a 'contortionist' to have killed himself by slashing his left wrist, as Lord Hutton concluded in 2004.

She called for a 'formal, independent, and complete' review of the case at the earliest opportunity, saying it was the only way to achieve 'closure'.
An aerial view of Harrowdown Hill, Oxfordshire, where Dr David Kelly's body was discovered in July 2003

An aerial view of Harrowdown Hill, Oxfordshire, where Dr David Kelly's body was discovered in July 2003

The letter said the absence of a full coroner's inquest into Dr Kelly's death and 'perpetual secrecy' meant it was ' crying out' for further scrutiny.

Dr Kelly, who worked for both the UN and later the Ministry of Defence, was found dead seven years ago next month in an Oxfordshire wood.

He was said to be deeply upset after being exposed as the source of a controversial BBC news report questioning Britain's grounds for going to war in Iraq.

The report, by journalist Andrew Gilligan, stated that Tony Blair's press spokesman Alastair Campbell had 'sexed up' the case for war for political reasons.

But, unusually for a death of this nature, no full coroner's inquest has ever been held. Instead, Tony Blair appointed retired judge Lord Hutton to chair a non-statutory public inquiry into the circumstances leading to his body being discovered.

Witnesses, who included Dr Kelly's widow, Janice, and Tony Blair, were not questioned under oath.

Lord Hutton concluded that Dr Kelly died by haemorrhage after slashing his left wrist but, as the Mail reported last week, his death certificate was officially registered before the Hutton Inquiry ended and it was not properly completed.



It was not signed by a doctor or coroner and does not state a place of death, as all death certificates should if this information can be established. This leaves open the possibility that he died somewhere other than where his body was found.

To further deepen the mystery, all evidence relating to the post-mortem has been classified for an incredible 70 years.

Miss Pedersen's view is significant because she knew Dr Kelly so well, both personally and professionally.

The pair worked together in Iraq in the 1990s and remained close friends until his death, although Miss Pedersen, 50, has always that she and Dr Kelly were not romantically involved.

She was initially asked to give evidence to the Hutton Inquiry in 2003 and agreed to do so, but was not called. This was because, it is claimed, the inquiry would not allow her to testify in private.

Her letter to Mr Grieve, dated June 10, states: 'We understand you have indicated a willingness to consider possibly reopening the investigation into the continuing controversy into the death of Dr Kelly.

'Given the absence of any coroner's inquest and the perpetual secrecy surrounding the post-mortem examination, it is painfully obvious that this matter continues to cry out for a formal, independent and complete review. Ms Pedersen fully supports and adds her voice to such an effort.

'The passage of time [does] not diminish either the public's interest or the government's responsibility to ascertain the full truth, whatever that might be.'

The Hutton Report failed to allay suspicions of foul play in Dr Kelly's death. On the morning of July 17, Dr Kelly mysteriously told a friend by email that there were 'many dark actors playing games'.

In 2007 it was discovered, through a Freedom of Information request, that the pruning knife he is said to have used to cut his wrist had no fingerprints on it.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291019/Dr-Kelly-slit-wrist-weak.html#ixzz0sNOi7pRi

xx nanadebbie

Dr Kelly was an observant Baha'i who would never have committed suicide. It means that they don't get into their heaven. I will always believe that that poor man was murdered .

I too never believed Dr. Kelly did not commit suicide, itt was too convenient for the Government, ie Tony
Blair to let the public believe that he had betrayed his Office by discounting the Government propaganda about
"45 minute warning" etc.

Since Mrs Kelly would have been aware that he couldn"t have committed suicide as Ms Pederson claims, why
didn"t she and her Family fight for his memory and set up a private investigation, I"m sure many of Dr Kelly"s
colleagues and the public would have donated. Why has Ms Pederson waited so long, waiting for the Labour
Government to be out of Office I suspect.

Course he was murdered. The police operation that day started BEFORE Dr.Kelly had left for his walk in the woods so what did the police know or do that day??

Yes and Ive got a bloody good idea who that was.....................Murdering Bastards, lets hope this Government has the balls to do something about it, and for once stop trying to cover things up.

Hare wrote:

margaret wrote:Course he was murdered. The police operation that day started BEFORE Dr.Kelly had left for his walk in the woods so what did the police know or do that day??

I believe that Michael Meacher who was a cabinet minister at the time of Dr Kelly's death has openly admitted on American TV that he was murdered. The footage used to be on you tube, and probably still is, but the sound track over that section of the video has mysteriously been whoosh clunked.

Governments are always murdering people, and I suspect a number of their victims deserve it, but Dr Kelly certainly didnt. It makes me furious that someone who risked his life for his country could be treated this way by politicians, security services, the police etc. Some bastard needs to be hung from a lampost for sanctioning this.

The founder of WikiLeaks is in hiding in fear for his life.

Daily Mail

A former Russian spy's dossier which suggests that Government scientist David Kelly was ' exterminated' in a planned assassination is being studied by the Attorney General.

Boris Karpichkov, who fled to Britain after 15 years as a KGB agent, claims a London intelligence contractor linked to MI5 told him Dr Kelly's death was not suicide.

Mr Karpichkov has emailed his evidence to Attorney General Dominic Grieve - who has already said he is 'concerned' by questions raised by doctors who dispute the official suicide ruling over the Iraq expert's death.

Last night a spokesman for Mr Grieve confirmed that the dossier had been received, and that it was being 'considered'.

Dr Kelly's body was discovered in woods close to his Oxfordshire home in July 2003.

Tony Blair's Labour Government had controversially unmasked him as the source of a hotly-disputed BBC news story that claimed a dossier used to justify the war on Iraq had been 'sexed up'.

Lord Hutton's public inquiry ruled that Dr Kelly killed himself, but since the ousting of Labour in May there has been growing pressure from within the coalition Government for a new independent inquiry.

A group of doctors have claimed Dr Kelly could not have died as a result of cutting his left wrist with a blunt garden pruning knife, and it has emerged that his death certificate was left incomplete.

There is also outrage at the fact that full details of his postmortem examination are to be kept secret for 70 years, and that no inquest took place.

Campaigners also note that on the morning of his death Dr Kelly sent an email warning of 'many dark actors playing games'.

The new allegations from Mr Karpichkov suggest directly that the 'dark actors' could have been British secret agents determined to silence Dr Kelly before he could embarrass the Government.

The former Russian spy, who defected from Latvia to Britain in 1998, says the source of his dossier is 'agent' Peter Everett, who lives in Dulwich, South-East London, and until 2006 ran a shadowy firm, Group Global Intelligence Services.

The firm is understood to have employed former MI5 operatives to carry out detective work for corporations.

Mr Karpichkov, who now holds a British passport, claims in his dossier that he worked for Mr Everett too, and that one of their dozens of meetings took place two days after Dr Kelly's body was found.

Mr Everett told him, the former KGB man claims, that Dr Kelly had been ' exterminated' for his ' reckless behaviour'.

Mr Karpichkov says Mr Everett suggested he was himself an 'active field operative' for MI5, and continues: 'He told me that it was extremely uncomfortable, inconsistent and unusual for Dr Kelly to slash his arm in the way he did. He would have lost some blood, but it would not have been fatal.

'He also claimed that it was not a coincidence that Special Branch officers were the ones who first appeared on the scene. They moved Dr Kelly's body to another location, changed the original position of his corpse and took away incriminating evidence.

'He added that the scene where Dr Kelly's body was found was carefully arranged and completely "washed out", including the destruction of all fingerprints.

'When I asked who was behind his death, he [ Mr Everett] answered indirectly, saying the "competing firm", which I took to mean MI6.'

At the weekend, Mr Everett confirmed that he had met Mr Karpichkov, and that he had discussed Dr Kelly's death. But he denied being party to any secret s about the incident.

He refused to comment on whether he had ever worked for MI5, but agreed he had 'spent a number of years working in the world of intelligence'.

Mr Karpichkov's dossier comes on top of a claim by Dr Kelly's colleague Mai Pedersen that the chemical warfare expert had been too weak to slash his own wrist."

Nannadebbie Just found this on MSN.........for discussion


http://news.uk.msn.com/world/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=154227622

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7953161/Attorney-General-will-step-in-to-end-speculation-over-David-Kelly-death.html

Looks like there may be an investigation.......depending on whether the Family want one!!!! Why didn"t they
ask for one at the time?



This email and attachments have been scanned for viruses, the
recipient should also check for the presence of viruses.The sender
accepts no liability for any damage caused by a virus transmitted with
this communication.