Doctors want David Kelly inquest resumed

By ANGUS HOWARTH
Published on 11/02/2013 01:37

A GROUP of doctors which has been investigating the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly have written to the chief coroner for England and Wales calling for his inquest to be resumed and the suicide verdict re-examined.

In a letter to Judge Peter Thornton, QC, they said there had been “deficiencies in legal processes” which meant Dr Kelly’s inquest had never been formally closed, no final death certificate had been issued and no cause of death had been ­confirmed by a coroner.

They also said that the first police officer at the scene of Dr Kelly’s death had changed his account of how his body was ­positioned, bolstering claims that it had been moved.

Dr Kelly’s body was found near his Oxfordshire home in 2003 shortly after he was identified as the source of a BBC ­report about the government’s dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The doctors, led by radiologist Stephen Frost, have long campaigned for a full ­inquiry into how Dr Kelly died. They argue that the ­Hutton ­Inquiry, which effectively ­superseded the work of the ­Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner, was inadequate.

They say that Lord Hutton merely accepted the opinion of the pathologist without proper investigation and lacking the experience, qualification or legal authority to confirm the cause of death.

In the letter, which has been copied to the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Chancellor and the ­Oxfordshire coroner, they call for the inquest to be resumed with witnesses giving evidence under oath, in front of a jury.