The Cut Wrist

What do we know of David Kelly's cut wrist?

All the photographs are embargoed until 2073. By then everyone concerned with David Kelly will be dead.

The Scenario

As I have already said, and will explain later, David Kelly died some 40 miles from Harrowdown Hill. His body was brought to the hill and dumped against a tree trunk. This is when a rather crude attempt to cut his left wrist - to simulate suicide - was inflicted upon his body.

I will explain how this was done in this chapter.

Slashed Wrist - typical

A self-inflicted 'slashed wrist' has a very typical appearance. The same pattern is seen with self-inflicted cut throats - seen more often in the past when old soldiers did it.

The determined person planning to commit suicide by cutting their wrist will 'test' the effect of cutting the skin with one or two lightweight cuts. Very superficial cuts. These are also called 'hesitation' or 'tentative' marks.

Then, having gained confidence, they will plunge the blade in deeply and make the intended cut. The cut will be deepest at the start and be less deep along its length. If they are right-handed the cut is usually from left to right - they will pull the blade towards themselves.

They might repeat this if the first deep cut didn't produce a gush of blood. So:

• there could be one, two or maybe three 'test' cuts
• then, in the midst of the test cuts, one or two deep cuts
• enough to cut an artery and produce a gush of blood
• the radial artery is most likely to be severed
• the ulnar artery is unlikely to be severed
• all of these cuts would be in the same place
• all the cuts are roughly parallel

In the case of a right-handed person, the cut would be made on the left wrist. The cut would run from the outside (radial) to the inside (ulnar) of the wrist.

A 'classical' suicide attempt at the left wrist. Some superficial 'test' cuts (1) followed by a deep incision (2). The blade is pushed in deeply at B and pulled towards the person - finishing, superficially, at A. Thus the Radial artery is most likely cut whilst the Ulnar artery is spared.

Simplified anatomy adapted from Gray's Anatomy

Roy Green

Roy Green gives a brief account of the wrist cuts.

Roy Green was a scientist employed by Forensic Alliance Limited (FAL). He describes his occupation as 'forensic biologist' at Lord Hutton's Inquiry. He had worked as such for 25 years and would have attended and recorded details of thousands of crime scenes.

He spent some five hours examining, recording and sampling David Kelly's body and its local environment.

He describes the wrist incisions in his statement as having approximately 11 cuts to the wrist. Surprisingly, he doesn't give any more details of the cuts, although he was perfectly qualified to describe them. This number of cuts is not at all typical for someone determined to commit suicide by slashing their wrist.

When an artery is cut, blood comes out with the force of the blood pressure. This spray of blood can be dramatic. An arterial spray can hit the ceiling of a room and spread for many feet - right across a small room, for example. The scene can look, literally, like a blood bath.

The paramedics, David Bartlett and Vanessa Hunt, who saw David Kelly's body, have insisted that there was very little blood at the scene. This pair of experienced paramedics would have seen hundreds of injuries with blood loss - probably more so than Dr Hunt.

David Bartlett said "I've seen more blood from a nosebleed".

In his 22-page statement, Roy Green is careful to lay down initial definitions:

• blood spread from an impact is 'impact splatter'

What I described above as 'arterial spray' he calls -

• 'arterial rain'

Roy Green - Blood Loss

Roy Green then says, of the scene of David Kelly's body, that the majority of blood 'staining' (not defined) was below 33 cm, the most distant 78 cm and the highest 50 cm.

There was also 'arterial bloodstaining with pooling' (not defined) closer to the injured limb - an interesting description of David Kelly's left arm.

Blood has 'spurted' (not previously defined) 78 cm.

But he doesn't mention any 'arterial rain'.

Also he said "There was no obvious areas of bloodstaining on the ground beneath the body".

This doesn't paint a picture of a blood bath from a cut Ulnar artery.

Vague Stuff

I thought Roy Green's description of the blood around David Kelly's body was pretty vague. It didn't employ any of his prior definitions.

I have to note that Roy Green's introduction to the Hutton Inquiry wasn't an example of scientific precision either.

Having arrived at the Inquiry he was questioned by James Dingemans QC:

Question - And when was your first involvement?
Answer - May I refer to my notes, if that is alright?
Q - Yes, of course.
A - I received a phone call on 18th July.
Q - At what time, morning, evening?
A - It was around about dinner time.
Q - Around about?
A - Dinner time.

The QC didn't try to clarify what time of day the forensic scientist meant when he said 'dinner time'. This is not a reassuring example of scientific linguistic accuracy. Was this 12:00, 13:00, 14:00 or maybe 17:00, 18:00 or 19:00 - or some other?

The matter wasn't helped when the QC then asked Roy Green:

Q - What time did you get to Harrowdown Hill?
A - We arrived at the scene at just gone 2 o'clock.
Q - 2 o'clock in the afternoon?
A - Yes.

I have no doubt that Roy Green is an excellent Forensic Scientist. It is quite possible that the very unusual circumstances, somewhat theatrical, of the Hutton Inquiry may have perturbed him.

However, it is clear that he doesn't describe a blood bath - rather just some blood spattered a short distance around David Kelly's left wrist.

Dr Nicholas Hunt

Dr Hunt gives a good and clear description of the cuts. Here, a picture would be worth a thousand words. But, thanks to Lord Hutton, we have no pictures. We have to work blind.

I have taken Dr Hunt's careful description of the wounds to create an image of them.

The Incisions

1. 6 cm long and up to 1.5 cm deep. This incision has cut the ulnar artery but missed the radial artery.
   
   
   This incision has partly severed the ulnar nerve (next to the artery). It hadn't severed any of the superficial tendons that lie between the two arteries.
   
   The edge of the incision is described as:
   
   

   • "crushing and maceration of the skin" and
   • "a number of notches"

   This is an unusual description of a skin incision. I suspect that two blades were used to make the wrist incisions.
   
   This incision seems to have been made by a rather blunt blade. The incision stated at 'A' with a deep plunge to about 1.5 cm. This severed the ulnar artery. The blade was then pulled towards 'B' - but now fairly superficially. As the blade was blunt, a deal of force was used and a 'sawing' motion used.
   
   This gave rise to the crushed and macerated skin edge and the 'notches'.
   
   David Kelly had a Sandvik gardening knife in his jacket pocket. Sandvik is a Swedish knife manufacturer. He had this knife since his childhood, so it may well have been blunt. I think the Sandvik knife was used to make this incision.
   
   However, I doubt if a blunt gardening knife could have made the other, much finer incisions described. I suspect a second very sharp blade was used to make these. Something like a 'Stanley' knife blade would have done the job.
2. Two incisions 2 and 2.5 cm long. Cut down to the fibrous sheath around the tendons, muscles, nerves and blood vessels. Thus these incisions posed no risk of blood loss or other injury.
   
3. Described as multiple fine, superficial incisions extending from all the deeper incisions. The vast majority of the injuries lay in parallel. Difficult to envision this description as it doesn't match any typical picture.
   
4. At least four criss-crossing superficial incisions between 2.5 and 3 cm long. In turn, these were crossed by a number of oblique fine incisions.
   
5. At least three superficial incisions here, about 1.2 cm long.
   

The left wrist incisions as described by Dr Hunt.
The blue arrow shows the likely direction of the cut.

Observations

 

1. There are to many incisions here - perhaps more than the 11 noted by Roy Green.
2. The incisions are scattered - not in one place.
3. There are not the classic 'test' incisions with a major incision in their midst.
4. The incisions are a mixed up bunch of harmless artefacts that lack coherence.
5. Only one of these incisions (number 1) was sufficiently deep to cut an artery. This is higher up the arm than would be usual.
6. It doesn't appear to have any typical 'test' cuts associated with it.
7. This incision, 1.5 cm deep, cut the ulnar artery but not the bigger radial artery.
8. This suggests that the incision was made from 'A' to 'B'.
9. This is opposite to what would be expected in a self-inflicted injury.
10. This is consistent with the proposition that a third party made the incisions - let's call him 'Officer-X'. Officer-X may have been female but was most probably male.
11. Officer-X would be standing or kneeling on David Kelly's left side. He would have cut the wrist from inside to outside. The cut would be deepest on the inside - thus the ulnar artery is cut and the radial artery was spared (see illustration).
12. This proposition is also consistent with the fact that there were no fingerprints on this knife. Officer-X would have been careful to wipe the knife clean.

Using Dr Hunt's description of the wounds explains the unusual fact that the ulnar arery was severed and the radial artery was spared. It was not self-inflicted - Officer-X did it.

This is how I think David Kelly's wrist was cut - by Officer-X

Having cut the ulnar artery, Officer-X would have squeezed or 'milked' the arm to drive out as much blood as possible. He would have done his best to spatter it around. However, a dead body isn't going to give up much blood from a severed ulnar artery - a few 10s of millilitres at best, I would guess.

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