Revealed: Iraq weapons inspector David Kelly died from 'self-inflicted injury'

WOUNDS to the body of weapons inspector David Kelly were "typical of self-inflicted injury", according to previously secret medical documents released today.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said he was publishing the documents on how Dr Kelly died "in the interests of maintaining public confidence in the inquiry into how Dr Kelly came by his death".

Lord Hutton, who conducted the inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, ruled that the report should remain secret for 70 years, but there were a number of calls for another examination of the case.

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Dr Kelly's body was found in woods near his Oxfordshire home in July 2003 after he was identified as the source of a BBC story claiming the Government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

In the outcry that followed, Tony Blair appointed Lord Hutton to head a public inquiry into his death. Unusually, the then lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, ruled it should also act as an inquest.

The conclusions of the post-mortem examination by Dr Nicholas Hunt, published today, matched those of Lord Hutton's report.

Lord Hutton's inquiry concluded Dr Kelly took his own life and that the principal cause of death was "bleeding from incised wounds to his left wrist which Dr Kelly had inflicted on himself with the knife found beside his body".

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He also found the scientist took an overdose of co-proxamol tablets - a painkiller commonly used for arthritis - and that he was suffering from an undiagnosed heart condition.

But doubts about Dr Kelly's death have refused to go away and in the summer Dr Hunt, a Home Office pathologist, said he would welcome a new inquest into the death.

Conspiracy theorists have suggested there may be more to his death.

In August, a group of prominent medical figures signed a letter stating that the official explanation was "extremely unlikely".

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And Detective Constable Graham Coe, who found the body, said there had not been much blood at the scene.

Following the calls for another examination of the case, Attorney General Dominic Grieve was reported to have asked to see reports of the post-mortem examination.

He has said he would need to see new evidence before considering applying for a full inquest into Dr Kelly's death.

But he said he could not apply to the High Court for an inquest on a "hunch" and would have to take account of the feelings of the scientist's close family, who have not asked for a new investigation.

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Calls for an inquest have come from Peter Kilfoyle, the former Labour minister, and Norman Baker, the Lib Dem transport minister. Lord Howard of Lympne, the former Conservative leader, has also added his voice.

But Dr Andrew Davison, a Home Office pathologist, said the circumstances of Dr Kelly's death were "not a game of Cluedo" and should be left to the experts.

In his post-mortem examination, Dr Hunt concluded: "It is my opinion that the main factor involved in bringing about the death of David Kelly is the bleeding from the incised wounds to his left wrist.

"Had this not occurred he may well not have died at this time.

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"Furthermore, on the balance of probabilities, it is likely that the ingestion of an excess number of co-proxamol tablets coupled with apparently clinically silent coronary artery disease would both have played a part in bringing about death more certainly and more rapidly than would have otherwise been the case.

"Therefore I give as the cause of death: 1a. Haemorrhage; 1b Incised wounds to the left wrist; 2. Co-proxamol ingestion and coronary artery atherosclerosis."

Lord Hutton said his request that the documents should not be released for 70 years was "solely in order to protect Dr Kelly's widow and daughters for the remainder of their lives (the daughters being in their twenties at that time) from the distress which they would suffer from further discussion of the details of Dr Kelly's death in the media".

He added: "My request was not a concealment of evidence because every matter of relevance had been examined or was available for examination during the public inquiry.

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"There was no secrecy surrounding the post mortem report because it had always been available for examination and questioning by counsel representing the interested parties during the inquiry."

Lord Hutton said his inquiry was "open and public" and neither Dr Kelly's family, the Government nor the BBC "asked for leave to question or challenge by cross examination" witnesses whose evidence "led to the conclusion that Dr Kelly had committed suicide and had not been murdered".

These included the pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt, leading suicide expert Professor Keith Hawton, the director of the Centre for Suicide Research in the University of Oxford, and others, Lord Hutton said.

Releasing the documents today, Mr Clarke added: "While I firmly believe that the publication of these documents is in the public interest, I am mindful that the contents may be distressing.

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"I hope that the privacy of Dr Kelly's family will be respected at this difficult time."

Solicitor Peter Jacobsen, of Bircham Dyson Bell, who has represented the family of Dr Kelly since 2003, said they had no comment to make.

Dr Kelly's arterial injury, caused by the wound to his left wrist, "resulted in the loss of a significant volume of blood as noted at the scene", the post-mortem examination found.

"The orientation and arrangement of the wounds over the left wrist are typical of self-inflicted injury.

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"Also typical of this is the presence of small so-called 'tentative' or 'hesitation' marks."

The removal of Dr Kelly's watch while blood was already flowing "suggests that it has been removed deliberately in order to facilitate access to the wrist", the pathologist's report said.

"The removal of the watch in this way and indeed the removal of the spectacles are features pointing towards this being an act of self-harm."

Dr Hunt added that the choice of a "very pleasant yet relatively private spot", the neat way in which the water bottle and its top were placed, and the "lack of obvious signs of trampling of the undergrowth or damage to clothing" all pointed to suicide.

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"There is a total lack of classical 'defence' wounds against a sharp weapon attack," he said.

There was "no positive pathological evidence" that Dr Kelly had been subjected to "a sustained, violent assault", or that he had had his neck compressed "such as by manual strangulation, ligature strangulation or the use of an arm hold", he added.

There was no evidence that the body had "been dragged or otherwise transported to the location at which his body was found".

Michael Powers QC, a doctor campaigning to overturn Lord Hutton's findings, told BBC News there was "nothing new" in the documents and there was still a "major conflict" over the amount of blood at the scene.

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Dr Kelly may have taken "far less than 29 tablets" and, if he had only taken six or eight, "one might draw completely different conclusions", he said.

"I don't believe any of the evidence that we have seen or heard to date can answer those questions."

Dr Powers added there was a "major conflict over how much blood was actually at the scene" and, asked about the details of the post-mortem examination, said: "These are all components which don't change things, there's nothing new in it."

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