Preface
This Chapter continues on from Chapter 5 – “Events at the Kelly Home”.
I need to explain some points:
- In that Chapter, I portrayed David Kelly leaving for a meeting. Because his driver was early, he was picked up in Appleton Road, Longworth a little after meeting his neighbour Ruth Absalom.
- The fact that the Kelly family didn’t report him as “missing” until 23:45 is consistent with the fact that they knew he was away and wouldn’t be home till late.
- We know that there were many issues that need to be dealt with urgently – thus the meeting was held at short notice on the evening of the 17th July.
- We know from the post mortem that the only natural pathology present in David Kelly’s body was severe coronary artery disease.
This degree of disease put him at a very high risk of sudden death from some form of heart attack.
- We know that he died that evening/night.
- We have a very clear account from a Hospital Consultant who reported that David Kelly was brought to the Accident and Emergency Department of the West Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire. By then he was dead – see below.
- We have evidence for the use of an oxygen mask and a defibrillator. Also evidence that he coughed up blood stained froth.
- We know his body was found later on Harrowdown Hill, Longworth, Oxfordshire.
- This – despite a detailed helicopter search that night of the area that failed to reveal any sign of a recently dead body
I have put all these matters into a coherent account below.
Back home to Southmoor
David Kelly was back at his home on Thursday the 17th of July 2003.
His preceding week was unusual. He had “fled”, with his wife, on government advice, from his home to a cottage in Portmellon just above Mevagissey. This had been arranged with Jan Kelly’s friend Pamela Dabbs of nearby Goran Haven.
On the Sunday he returned to Oxford – staying with his daughter Rachel.
On Tuesday the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee had questioned him – with highly disrespectful remarks from Andrew MacKinlay – televised.
On Wednesday he went to London to attend the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee
He spent Thursday morning in his study. He was busy with messages. As well as emails coming and going, he had a business landline, a home landline and his mobile telephone.
He was very reliant on his mobile telephone. He had grown used to it as a very dependable way of keeping in touch wherever he was in the world.
At 11am he broke from work for a cup of coffee with Mrs Kelly.
As the morning passed it was obvious to him that he had to meet a number of his civil servant bosses. Many people were asking many questions. About which journalists had he met and what had he said. There were also emerging “Prime Minster Questions” (PMQs) –all of these needed answering.
He finally agreed to go to a meeting with his managers and other civil servants (M&CS). This was urgent and had to be that evening - the evening of the 17th July. He had a gut feeling that this could be a “difficult” meeting.
He had a lunch of sandwiches with Mrs Kelly at about 1pm.
For whatever reason he decided not to drive himself but asked for a driver to pick him up from home. The driver was due to call at about 3.30pm. David Kelly wanted to leave later but they couldn’t get him a driver much later than 3:30pm.
A Short Walk
He decided to get some fresh air and go for a short walk just before 3.00pm. He crossed the road and went up Wagon Place – a lane that quickly passed into open fields. Then up and onto a footbridge over A420 - the village by-pass.
Coming down off the bridge he was in Harris’s Lane which ended where it met Appleton Road on the edge of Longworth village.
At this junction he met his neighbour, from across the road, Ruth Absalom. She was out with her dog Buster. She describes the meeting, by telephone, to the Hutton Inquiry -
Q. MR James DINGEMANS QC - What did you say to him?
A - He said, "Hello Ruth" and I said, "Oh hello David, how are things?" He said, "Not too bad". We stood there for a few minutes then Buster, my dog, was pulling on the lead, he wanted to get going. I said, "I will have to go, David". He aid, "See you again then, Ruth" and that was it, we parted.
Q - How did he seem to you?
A - Just his normal self, no different to any other time when I have met him.
Q - And did you see what direction he left in?
A - Well, he was going for his walk. I suppose he went to my right, along the road towards Kingston Bagpuize
This description of David Kelly’s departure fits with David Kelly walking East along Appleton Road.
This is away from Harrowdown Hill.
Driven to a Meeting
Back at the Kelly home the driver had arrived early to collect David Kelly. He had been given this job at short notice and was short of time. After some prevarication Mrs Kelly telephoned David to tell him his driver had arrived. David was a bit fed up at this hiccup and told his wife to send the driver around the village to Appleton Road where he would meet him.
A few minutes later the driver met David Kelly. The car turned around and headed off to the meeting. This was about an hour’s drive away. En route David Kelly remembered that he had left his wallet on the dining room table. He had intended to pick it up when he returned from his walk. Not a concern - he hadn’t expected to be spending any money.
The Final Meeting
The meeting was slow to start. Various people had been delayed in London and elsewhere so it was gone 7pm when everyone was there. David Kelly’s suspicion that this could be a difficult meeting was soon confirmed.
The meeting was in government offices in Reading – possibly in or near Coley Park.
People he knew only very casually were asking lots of questions about his media connections. He didn’t feel he was being given the respect he deserved as a senior civil servant and a pre-eminent scientist in his field.
But David Kelly’s exact position in the government hierarchy was quite unusual. He wasn’t a manager – in charge of a team of civil servants.
He was more a lone-wolf expert scientist – but a very senior one. So expert that he worked for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) – his original employee – and others. These included the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the United Nations Special Commission and the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.
At the meeting the questioning moved on to the PMQs that had been tabled. The (M&CS) wanted detail by detail of these. David Kelly could deal with all of these but they did upset him as – yet again – this very private man was being put into the glare of public discussion.
David Kelly was also hungry and had drunk more than enough coffee for one evening. He thought of getting some food when the meeting was over – but then realised he had no money to buy anything.
The M&CS then took an unexpected tack. They raised the question about Civil Service Code and his meetings with the Media. They put it to David Kelly that he may have breached the Code in his dealings with journalists. This was debatable. David Kelly had met and talked to many journalists over many years. He had been trained on how to manage these meetings.
Nevertheless this meeting was beginning to stress David Kelly.
He was used to working in very hostile, dangerous and difficult conditions. From darkest Russia to insane Iraq but he was always calm and composed.
Now, however, he was tired, hungry, and had drunk too much coffee. He began to realise that he was not quite right. He wasn’t feeling quite right.
Then M&CS then took another unexpected tack. One of the M&CS who had said little so far was asked to add to the matter possible breaches of the Civil Service Code. He explained that if this was proven, both David Kelly’s job position and pension could be at risk.
The Last Straw
For David Kelly this was the last straw.
He had spent 30 years at the forefront of his field – helping to protect his country – and the Western world. Working all hours imaginable without complaint.
Now he was being threatened with being placed penniless in a government waste bin.
This was too much and David Kelly lost his temper – a very rare event. As he spoke his mind about these absurd innuendoes he began to feel hot, sweaty and faint. He had to sit down to get his breath – and stopped his outburst. His chest felt very tight and he simply wanted to sit and rest.
The M&CS suddenly realised that they had gone too far, too fast. What the hell could they do? David Kelly wasn’t looking at all well.
No one knew that David Kelly’s heart was badly affected by severe arterial disease. It had been hanging on by a thread of an artery.
David Kelly is unwell
Someone then remembered that there was usually a First-Aider in the building. They telephoned him and demanded that he come in. This he did.
He wasn’t at all sure what was going on in this room or what was wrong with David Kelly. Now David Kelly was feeling very faint and felt very short of breath. The First-Aider fetched an oxygen cylinder. He placed an oxygen mask over David Kelly’s nose and mouth and turned on the oxygen flow to 4 litres per minute. David Kelly now lying flat with some cushions beneath his head. This seemed to help - David Kelly was a bit calmer and more relaxed.
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| Oxygen mask on David Kelly |
The M&CS were totally against this. They were in a massive turmoil. If they took him to hospital there would be an enormous eruption of a fuss of how did David Kelly end up in the state he was in?
From their perspective, David Kelly was fit and well when their meeting started. Now he was looking very unwell. They had no doubt that they had caused his present state – they were responsible for it. In their eyes they were 100% responsible for the situation.
They decided to sit tight and hope the First-Aider would be able to get David Kelly well again.
In not taking David Kelly to a hospital they crossed a moral, ethical and professional Rubicon that was to have far reaching effects.
David Kelly gets worse
The oxygen seemed to have helped David Kelly. But he was far from well. He was short of breath and coughed to little avail. Occasionally he would cough up some pink froth – spattered onto the inside of his oxygen mask.
He asked to be taken to hospital – just as the First Aider had asked. The M&CS said that they had called a MOD doctor who was on his way.
There was no sign of their doctor and David Kelly became increasingly breathless and tired. Suddenly he got worse very quickly and then became unconscious.
The M&CS were already in disarray as what to do. Their MOD men wanted to get him to a hospital – but the others didn’t. The media and political mayhem that would emerge if he were taken into a hospital was too much for them.
Clearly - They were not acting in David Kelly’s best interests. They were acting in their best interests.
David Kelly dies
Suddenly David Kelly dies – as best as the M&CS can judge.
The First Aider runs to get a new piece of kit he had just got. He comes back with a box of electronics - an Automatic Electrical Defibrillator (AED).
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| Attempted defibrillation of David Kelly’s heart |
He gets one of the M&CS to start pumping his chest. He paces two big sticky pads on David Kelly’s chest. He asked the M&CS to stand back before hitting the “defibrillate” button. He does this until he and the machine are exhausted.
Then there’s a profound silence before a debate blows open. They feel that, as David Kelly had walked into their room fit and well, they had killed him.
Would they face a murder charge or maybe a manslaughter charge. They were in an appalling situation – but not as bad as David Kelly’s.
But was he dead? They couldn’t be sure. After much discussion they tidied up his clothes and called an ambulance.
The top M&CS went with him to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.
The paramedics bought David Kelley into the Accident & Emergency Unit (A&E). Routinely they helped the A&E nurses and undid David Kelly’s shirt to find some sticky pads already on his chest!
Not sure what these were they whipped off. Then they put on four sticky ECG electrodes and switched on the ECG machine. There was just a straight line – he was obviously dead. The nurses tried to get a blood pressure – no luck. His pupils were wide open and didn’t close with a bright light. They were “fixed and dilated” – a terminal event.
The top M&CS told the hospital staff, while showing his top level security pass, that this was a matter of National Security, cleared by the Home Office, and David Kelly’s body had to be returned to them, as a matter of National Security.
What on earth do they do with his body?
David Kelly was now back at the meeting place. What on earth do they do with his body?
Some said, “let’s take it back” to the hospital and let them deal with the matters. This would almost certainly involve a Police investigation – and they didn’t really want that.
Others said let’s call the Police now – and own up.
Other ideas were suggested but all seemed too impracticable.
What happened next?
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