David Kelly’s GP
But it did.
I have no doubt that Dr Warner is a totally honest and reliable doctor.
But - I believe that he found himself caught in a complex scenario. He thought his best option was to go into denial.
By so doing he has left a trail of enigmas.
Dr Malcolm Warner’s full name is Malcolm David Warner. He was born in Dorset in 1947; in 1971 he married Christine Hills in Hampstead.
Malcolm Warner qualified MB BS from the Royal London Hospital in 1973; he should have qualified in 1972 – but slipped back a year. After his one year of “house jobs”, he spent some time in children’s medicine.
He moved to Faringdon in 1975 and joined the White Horse Medical Practice. This is in the old Oxfordshire market town of Faringdon – beneath the Uffington White Horse. He remained here until his retirement in 2007. Then he moved to Newton Abbot in Devon.
His practice was computerised in 2002 and had a website by 2005 –
Friday 18 July 2003
A regular Thursday was about to become irregular. Dr Warner was at the surgery when it opened at 08:30. Within a few minutes a Thames Valley Police (TVP) car arrived. Two TVP officers had come to talk to David Kelly’s GP – Dr Malcolm Warner. Details of this are here – item 45 on page 21 -
They explained that David Kelly was missing.
They wanted to know if he needed any drugs etc. Was he diabetic, epileptic or had any other critical illnesses?
The answer was no.
As they were about to leave, news came across the radio that a body had been found. This was at about 09:00. They told Dr Warner of this find – in confidence.
As they went to leave, staff of Operation Mason called them. This was the TVP operation set up to look for David Kelly. Would Dr Warner be prepared to identify the body found on Harrowdown Hill?
A family member would often be asked to identify a body. This didn’t seem an appropriate option on this occasion. Otherwise, a person of some standing in the community who knew the deceased – a vicar, doctor or similar. David Kelly didn’t attend the Church so his GP was an obvious choice.
Whilst DC Coe had little doubt that the body was that of David Kelly, an independent identification was necessary. The more so because of David Kelly’s VIP status.
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| David Kelly's body as found by the Searchers at 08:45 |
Dr Warner had a fair workload that morning. He asked the surgery staff to do their best to rearrange his work while he went with the police. By 09:15 Dr Warner had arrived at Harrowdown Hill.
Dr Warner was driven to Harrowdown Hill copse. One of DC Coe’s trio led him to the body. Dr Warner agreed that this was Dr David Kelly. However, he couldn’t examine him properly as he was slumped up against the tree.
My medical colleagues assure me that doctors are trained, from day one, to examine patients in a specific way. Dr Warner had been doing this for 30 years. They need the patient to be almost flat save for a pillow or similar. They will examine the patient from the patient’s right-hand side. Even left-handed doctors are trained so.
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| David Kelly's body as found by the Paramedics at 10:00 |
Thus, Dr Warner asked one of the Coe trio help him move the body onto flat ground; this was done and the body ended up clear of the tree by about 18″.
Then he could check the pupils, feel for a carotid artery pulse, look for any signs of breathing and listen to his chest, with a stethoscope, for any sounds of breathing or heartbeats. As a matter of routine, he picked up the right arm to feel for a radial pulse. There was none and with great care and sadness he put the right arm down across the chest.
He noticed that the body was cool but there was no rigor mortis.
There were obvious incisions at the left wrist surrounded by some blood.
He told the Coe trio that the body was that of his patient Dr David Kelly – and he that he was dead. DC Coe and his fellow officers thanked Dr Warner for his time.
He was driven back to his surgery as quickly as he came.
Another Doctor
As Dr Warner was about to leave David Kelly’s body, another doctor arrived on the scene. I will explain this in Chapter 12. Suffice it to say that the second Dr – lets call him Dr LT – briefly discussed the condition of David Kelly’s body with Dr Warner before they departed.
The account above - Dr Warner
Much of my account above of Dr Warner’s conduct is speculative.
But – there are reasons for these conclusions:
- We know that TVP officers called on Dr Warner to find out about his medical needs.
- This could only have happened when it was assumed David Kelly was alive. The information was irrelevant if he had died.
- Dr Warner’s surgery opened at 08;30. The body was found at 08:45.
- The TVP officers were at or near Dr Warner when they heard that a body had been found.
- Dr Warner was the obvious choice to provide an independent identification – as well as certifying death.
- It is clear that someone moved David Kelly’s body. It was reported by both the searchers to be slumped against the tree. When the paramedics arrived it was flat and well clear of the tree.
- Both Dr Hunt, the pathologist, and PC Sawyer described how David Kelly’s jean bottoms were pulled upwards.
- Moving David Kelly’s body from a position slumped up against a tree to a clear flat position is entirely reasonable if a doctor wanted to examine the person properly.
Mr Robert Jackson MP
In 2003 Robert Jackson was the Conservative MP for Wantage, Oxfordshire, and had been for 20 years.
He lived in Southmoor – less than a mile from the Kelly family. Mr Jackson knew Mrs Kelly and had met David Kelly briefly.
After David Kelly’s death, he received various messages – mostly covert – about his late constituent – David Kelly. These were to the effect that things were not as they seemed – and his death should be looked into.
A month or so after David Kelly’s death he went to see his GP – Dr Malcolm Warner – about a routine medical matter. In light of his concerns and in the midst of the consultation he asked Dr Warner if he had an opinion about David Kelly’s death.
Dr Warner responded by saying that indeed he did - he had been to see his body on Harrowdown Hill. There was no doubt that he had slashed wrists and it looked like an obvious suicide.
Mr Jackson didn’t doubt this account and took it as clear primary evidence of the facts. An account of this meeting was later reported in the press in March 2011.
Dr Warner no doubt gave this account to Mr Jackson as consistent with the “official version”.
I believe that Dr Warner knew of a different version of events - from his encounter with Dr LT.
But he wasn’t prepared to share this alternative version with Mr Jackson.
Thus Robert Jackson left Dr Warner’s surgery reassured about the cause of David Kelly’s death.
Finally – it is possible that Dr Warner had breached some esoteric aspect of patient confidentiality. He may have been back-pedalling from this.
Communications
I wrote to and spoke to Robert Jackson concerning this issue. His account is just as I described it above and he is no doubt that Dr Warner went to see David Kelly’s body on Harrowdown Hill.
I have also written to and spoken to Dr Malcolm Warner. Dr Warner completely contradicts Robert Jackson’s account. He denies having been to Harrowdown Hill.
His final comment is – as it has always been to me and others –
“this accords with my evidence to the Hutton inquiry.”
He was very reluctant, as opposed to being very open, to discuss this matter at all. He always resorted to referring to his evidence at the HI as the end of the matter.
But it’s almost the beginning of a matter – because Dr Warner’s “evidence” to the HI stands out like a flashing red light.
Dr Warner – Anomalies
- There is a clear report - given by Robert Jackson MP – that Dr Warner saw David Kelly’s body on Harrowdown Hill.
- Dr Warner has often referred to his account* of events at the Hutton Inquiry (HI) as his final words on the matter.
Dr Warner’s Account* at HI
* Statements made at the HI were not under oath and I prefer the term account as opposed to evidence or testimony. These words convey a sense of legality that is misleading.
- His Name - The first anomaly is his answer to the first Question
Q: MR KNOX: Dr Warner, can you tell the Inquiry your full name?
Like every other attendee at the HI he should have given his full name as –
“Malcolm David Warner”
But no, as though reading from a script, he says –
A: Dr WARNER: I am Dr Malcolm Warner.
He failed to give his full name and gave his shortened name plus his title. I wonder if he was reading from a prepared script? - His Answers - Dr Warner was David Kelly’s GP for many years - also GP to the other four members of the Kelly family. He was in a perfect position to answer a myriad questions about David Kelly and his family.
Instead Dr Hawton – the psychiatrist, answered these questions - after a fashion. Dr Hawton seems to have been imported and spent time with the Kelly family getting to know them and the late David Kelly.
Dr Hawton then answered many questions about the Kelly family and David Kelly – although he had never met him. He seemed to be acting as a posthumous locum GP.
Dr Warner could have answered most of these questions – but he did not.
A most remarkable feature of Dr Warner’s answers is their amazing brevity. The total number of words spoken by Dr Warner amounted to just 74!
Dr Hawton’s answers ran to 6,639 words – 90 times as much as Dr Warner had to say.
My immediate reaction to this is that Dr Warner didn’t want to be at the HI. He went under some duress, answered a minimal number of agreed questions and left. A token appearance.
The absurd brevity of his answers doesn’t give his appearance any credibility. For all practical purposes he may as well have stayed in Faringdon. - Analysis of his Answers - I am greatly indebted to a scientific colleague and friend. He wrote a computer programme that analysed in detail the whole of the text of the HI Transcripts that can be found here –
This amounted to just over 860,000 words in total. Of these Dr Warner contributed 74.
The vertical bar on the extreme left has a value of four and represents the average length of Dr Warner’s answers compared to everyone else’s.
One witness managed to average 79 words per answer (Terence Taylor – a defence expert).
If we look at everyone’s answers we find that the average length of an answer was 33 words.
Dr Warner’s answers averaged just four words per answer – hardly an intelligent sentence.
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| Graph of average number of words per individual answer for each attendee |
Statistically Dr Warner’s answers were very, very out of the ordinary.
If we look at the total words in each person’s answers we get the following graph.
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| Graph of total words in all answers per attendee |
The average number of words per witness for all the their answers was 4,970.
Dr Warner’s answer ran to a total of 74 – it is on the absolute extreme left of the graph. It is so little it that it can’t be shown on this graph.
The bar on the extreme left shows the total number of words spoken by Dr Warner. The least of all the 78 witnesses. The bar to the right of Dr Warner’s are some brief technical questions to the HI’s Secretary.
Dr Warner’s answers were very abnormal and very atypical.
Intuitively, I don’t think he wanted to be at the HI. The extraordinary paucity of his account – 74 words – seems entirely consistent with this.
I think that he may be an example of a witness who didn’t want to attend. But did attend as a result of some duress – many forms of which could be applied to a family GP.
Why wouldn’t he want to attend the HI? I can explain this in Chapter 12.
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| Graph of total words in ten shortest answers |
3. Examination of Evidence submitted to the Inquiry by TVP – Statements
This is a list of statements made to TVP. The list was released in 2011. We know that it has a significant number of missing statements eg Tucks Lane resident, amongst many others. It is here –
The list contains 265 documents of which 200 are covert; the remaining 65 are available to the public – just 25% of the total.
Twenty-five confidential statements involve medical correspondence about David Kelly and Dr Warner – mostly in respect of medical letters – dating from 1979 to 1996.
The statements are recorded by Volume and Page Numbers. Thus TVP/4/0016-18 – would be a document in Volume 4 and on Pages 16 to 18 inclusive.
In TVP’s Volume 1, Dr Warner was the seventh person (out of more than 200) to have given a statement to TVP – on page 39.
The eighth person was David Bartlett, one of the paramedics, and the ninth person was Vanessa Hunt, the other paramedic.
Both paramedics were sent to Harrowdown Hill.
It is strange that Dr Warner, who denies having been to Harrowdown Hill, has given a statement to TVP that is filed immediately before those of the two paramedics who did go to Harrowdown Hill.
TVP Volume 1:
| Witness statement: David Malcolm Warner - not for release - personal witness statement | TVP/1/0039 |
| Witness statement: David Ian Bartlett - not for release - personal witness statement | TVP/1/0040 - 0041 |
| Witness statement: Vanessa Elizabeth Hunt - not for release - personal witness statement | TVP/1/0042 – 0045 |
On the 28th July – ten days after David Kelly’s death - Ruth Rees, a Coroner’s Officer in Oxford, wrote to Dr Warner. He replied on the 4th August. This may well have been routine correspondence – but it is not made public because it is classed as “Police operational information”; perhaps it wasn’t routine correspondence after all.
TVP Volume 10:
| Letter: Dr Malcolm Warner / Coroner's Officer 04.08.03 - not for release - Police operational information | TVP/10/0123 |
| Letter: Ruth Rees (coroner's officer) / Dr M Warner 28.07.03 - not for release - Police operational information | TVP/10/0124 |
Conclusion
- We have a clear statement from Robert Jackson MP that Dr Warner told him that he had been to see David Kelly’s body.
- We have a great deal of circumstantial evidence to support Robert Jackson’s statement.
- Dr Warner now denies having any involvement with David Kelly’s body on Harrowdown Hill.
- Dr Warner, when pressed for information, simply says, “this accords with my evidence to the Hutton inquiry”.
- Yet his account at the HI is manifestly very atypical, very abnormal.
- I think I may be able to explain this anomaly in Chapter 12.
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