Dr Kelly's Final Hours Did Not Indicate Suicide

Monday, 21 July 2003, 1:15 pm
Article: The Scoop Editor

In the 48 hours since the death of UK WMD scientist David Kelly several key pieces of evidence concerning his final hours and frame of mind have now come to light. These are extracted from key articles and linked below.

Notably they do not point to a seemingly suicidal or internally tortured end for the scientist who has taken to the grave the truth about his relationship with the UK PM's office and the alleged "sexing up" of Iraqi WMD intelligence.

In the wake of some reports that the death has been "confirmed as suicide" it is important for news consumers to realise that legally neither the police, nor the media, have any power to make such a determination.

The cause of death will ultimately be determined legally by a coroner's inquest and that will probably be several weeks if not months away.

It is also important to realise that while the evidence that has been released about the death is consistent with suicide, it is also consistent with a murder made to look like suicide.

Moreover the alleged method of suicide a self inflicted knife wound to the wrist is 1) a method of suicide extremely seldom used by men, and 2) a method of suicide that is seldom successful as it takes such a long time to die.

Finally it is worth repeating some remarks from WhatReallyHappened.com:

"Why would he commit suicide NOW? And why try to commit suicide using the slowest method possible, out on the open, where he might be seen and stopped, as opposed to renting a motel room with a bed and bathtub? How could Kelly know that, once he was unconscious, a passer by might not spot him and call for an ambulance?"

And on that point, given his importance to the UK Government at this time, and his role in the affair as an alleged leaker of sensitive information (he gave evidence only last Tuesday about the most significant intelligence scandal in recent memory) isn't it also just a little bit odd that Dr David Kelly wasn't under observation by the intelligence services?

Postscript: Since publication another report has come to our attention shedding light on the issue of whether or not Dr Kelly was under observation. Sky News reported (CLICK FOR LINK- See 5th To Last Para), "Mr Mangold also revealed Dr Kelly had been taken to a safe house but 'he hadn't liked that, he wanted to come home.'" Clearly someone considered that Dr Kelly was in danger of being attacked.

- The Scoop Editor

NEWS LINKS:

" there was nothing to indicate he was troubled. 'He smiled and said hello,' Weaver recalled."

…. SNIP…

Paul Weaver, a local farmer, did see him, however. He greeted Kelly as he strode through the fields north of the A420 close to his home, but there was nothing to indicate he was troubled. 'He smiled and said hello,' Weaver recalled.

Kelly's route was a familiar one to the keen rambler, cutting across the gentle rolling countryside of fields and copses that lay between his home village and Longworth, two miles away. It would have taken him at least an hour to walk across the fields, sodden after rain. But in Longworth, too, he passed unnoticed as he tramped through the pretty village that sits on a the crest of a hill.

Kelly continued towards the centre of that crest, set forward a little from the village, where there is a small hill, topped with a thick copse of ash and oak, known as Harrowdown Hill. He knew the farmer whose fields lay around the wood well. He knew, and loved, the fields and woods that would be his final destination. Some time on Thursday afternoon or late evening, according to police, Kelly took some tablets of Co-proxamol, a prescription painkiller, and cut his left wrist. Then he simply waited, on the crown of the ridge, above the most magnificent of views.

FROM:
A haunted man
But why did Kelly have to die?
Sunday July 20, 2003
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1001786,00.html

" Just yesterday in an email to a friend he expressed a desire to return to the job that meant so much to him."

…SNIP…

Just yesterday in an email to a friend he expressed a desire to return to the job that meant so much to him. "Hopefully it will soon pass" he wrote "and I can get to Baghdad and get on with the real work."

…SNIP…

Garth Whitty worked with David Kelly in Iraq: Kelly was among the last of the UN inspectors to leave in 1998. He was a seeker of truth, a determined investigator and a very tough personality.

He sent an email to his friend Alistair Hay yesterday morning. In it he said he was planning to return to Iraq - and he told colleagues he agreed to meet Andrew Gilligan so he could get a first-hand description of conditions in Baghdad.

I too knew David Kelly. He was not a mole, he was not a spook, he was not even a civil servant. He was a consultant who planned to retire next year.

As a close friend said: "David Kelly was just a very nice guy. He cared. He tried to make the world a safer place."

FROM:
DR DAVID KELLY - PROFILE:
By Andrew Veitch.
http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/07/week_3/19_kelly.html

"There was no suicide note on the body or at his £1.2million six-bedroomed country cottage. Police took away a computer."

FROM:
IRAQ EXPERT DRIVEN TO TRAGIC 'SUICIDE'
Jul 19 2003
By Gary Jones And Steve Mccomish
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=13194250&method=full&siteid=50143

" Dr David Kelly reportedly told of 'many dark actors playing games'"

" Mrs Kelly said she had no indication that her husband was contemplating suicide."

Weapons expert Dr David Kelly reportedly told of "many dark actors playing games" in an email to a journalist hours before his suicide.

…SNIP…

The message gave no indication that he was depressed and said he was waiting "until the end of the week" before judging how his appearance before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee had gone.

…SNIP…

It said another associate had received a "combative" message from Dr Kelly shortly before he left his Oxfordshire home for the last time on Thursday.

The scientist said in the email that he was determined to overcome the scandal surrounding him and was enthusiastic about the possibility of returning to Iraq.

…SNIP…

Dr Kelly's wife Janice told the New York Times her husband had worked on Thursday morning on a report he said he owed the Foreign Office and had sent some emails to friends.

She said: "After lunch, he went out for a walk to stretch his legs as he usually does."

Mrs Kelly said she had no indication that her husband was contemplating suicide.

FROM:
Kelly warned of 'dark actors playing games'
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_801531.html?menu=news.politics

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