An Inconvenient Death

An Inconvenient Death - Episode 4

April 05, 2021 Sam Eastall Season 1 Episode 4
An Inconvenient Death
An Inconvenient Death - Episode 4
Show Notes Transcript

Episode 4 looks at some of the strange inconsistencies concerning the findings from Dr Kelly’s post-mortem. And it investigates how the Hutton inquiry was designed to obscure rather than reveal what really happened to Dr Kelly. 

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Welcome back to the series that’s taking an in-depth look into the death of British weapons inspector Dr David Kelly with the help of journalist and author Miles Goslett.

We rejoin the story on the morning of July the 18th 2003. At just after 9am Dr Kelly’s body had been discovered on Harrowdown Hill in Oxfordshire. 

At the same time the Prime Minister Tony Blair was flying from Washington to Tokyo and as he discovered the news immediately ordered a public inquiry. Within minutes Blair’s old flat mate Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor at the time, had appointed Lord Hutton to chair the inquiry and things in Whitehall were moving very quickly with the idea of a suspected suicide taking hold from the start even though at this time Dr Kelly’s body had yet to be properly examined.   

When Blair’s plane took off from Washington with a press back at the back of the plane, nobody on the flight had been aware that Dr Kelly had gone missing. But at about 10am UK time, one of the reporters rang their office and was told that Dr Kelly had disappeared. Miles, what happened next?

MILES - Inevitably, the news circulated straight away around the plane. With about four and a half hours of the flight remaining, everybody wanted to know what was going on.

As the plane was preparing to land, and it was too late for a lengthy briefing, a spokesman announced over the speaker system: that the Prime Minister was distressed for the family and if it was Dr Kelly's body the Ministry of Defence would hold an independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances leading up to his death.

SAM - So at about 2.35pm UK time – and 10.35pm Tokyo time - Blair’s plane touched down in Japan. How did the Blairs seem?

MILES – There’s a photograph of them getting off the plane looking pretty ill at ease. By this point Blair appeared to have known for several hours that the body was indeed Dr Kelly’s. He must have been worried about whether he would survive this crisis.

SAM – OK, we’ll come back to Blair in Tokyo shortly. But first lets talk about something that was happening in Oxfordshire, and some interesting discoveries you’ve made about Dr Kelly’s dental records going missing.

MILES – Yes. During the morning of Friday 18 July, just after Dr Kelly’s body was found on Harrowdown Hill, his dentist, Dr Bozena Kanas, was searching her surgery in Abingdon for his dental records. She looked and looked but she couldn’t find them.

SAM – Did the police know about this?

MILES – Not straight away, no. 

SAM – So why was she looking for the records?

MILES – She heard that morning that a body believed to be Dr Kelly had been found and she wanted to read his notes. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, she remembered Dr Kelly was due for his six-month check-up shortly. It was protocol that a receptionist would ring a patient’s house as a reminder and Dr Kanas didn’t want this call to be made for obvious reasons.

The second reason for her wanting to see the dental records was more personal: Dr Kelly had been her patient for nine years. He had become a platonic friend. Having heard during a radio report that morning that Dr Kelly had apparently been QUOTE “depressed” before being found dead, she wanted to check his notes to see whether he had ever mentioned suffering from depression, because she had no recollection of this. 

SAM – So what happened when she started looking for the records?

MILES - There was an extensive refurbishment project taking place in the surgery at the time. All her patients’ notes were stored in a filing cabinet outside her practice room. She looked for them without success. She then asked two other members of staff to help look but nobody could find the notes. 

SAM – And this was just after his body had been found?

MILES – This search began before midday on the day Dr Kelly’s body was found and seems to have lasted quite a long time. I’ve been told that every available patient record was combed in every conceivable corner of the surgery to see whether Dr Kelly’s notes had mistakenly been moved from the place where they should have been. One member of staff working there at the time said the practice was searched for hours. And yet still there was no sign of Dr Kelly’s records. 

SAM – This is a very odd part of the overall story. What have you found out about the surgery?

MILES – Well the surgery had opened for business at 8am. No intruder had walked in between that time and Dr Kanas’s realisation sometime before midday that the records were missing. And so logically that can only mean the records must have gone missing before she had heard on the radio about Dr Kelly’s disappearance earlier that morning. 

This can also only mean that the records must have disappeared before Dr Kelly’s body was found by the volunteer searchers at Harrowdown Hill at about 9.20am. 

SAM – OK, so this part of the story develops later in the sequence of events but for now, let’s return to the scene at Harrowdown Hill. And Miles, there were two significant things happening in parallel with each other in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of his body: there was the formal police and forensic investigation at the scene itself plus, later on, the post mortem on Dr Kelly’s body. 

And then there was also the construction of the public inquiry to be chaired by Lord Hutton - what came to be known as The Hutton Inquiry.

First, let’s look at what happened at the scene at Harrowdown Hill. What can you tell us?

MILES - At midday, a forensic pathologist called Dr Nicholas Hunt was logged into the outer cordon of the police scene at Harrowdown Hill. Hunt was a Home Office accredited pathologist and as was standard practice he was asked to go to the scene by the office of Nicholas Gardiner, the Oxfordshire coroner.  Hunt was told that a body believed to be that of Dr Kelly had been found.

SAM – How experienced was Hunt professionally at this point? 

MILES – Quite inexperienced. He had been on the Home Office list for only two years. He had spent less than 10 years working in pathology. But the Oxfordshire coroner, Nicholas Gardiner, appointed him because it was the summer, many people were away, and I understand he was the first person available. 

SAM – What was happening at this point at Harrowdown Hill? 

MILES – Well the coroner, Nicholas Gardiner, and Assistant Chief Coonstable Michael Page of Thames Valley Police had spoken earlier that morning about the need to achieve the most thorough examination of the scene possible, based on the police’s decision to treat Dr Kelly’s death as QUOTE “suspicious”. SAM – So murder hadn’t been ruled out.

MILES – No.

SAM – And then?

MILES - Hunt went to the inner cordon. He was given a background briefing into what the police knew at the time including, according to the notes which appeared in his subsequent post mortem report, that Dr Kelly had last been seen walking “northwards” at 3.30pm the previous afternoon. 

SAM – But in a previous episode we established that Ruth Absalom, Dr Kelly’s neighbour and the last person known to have seen him alive, saw him walk down the Appleton Road – in an easterly direction away from Harrowdown Hill. Isn’t that right?

MILES – Yes. That’s what she said. Hunt could have made a mistake, but it’s likelier he was given incorrect information by the police when he arrived. 

SAM – Then what?

MILES – Hunt was shown a video of Dr Kelly’s body – which he later described as QUOTE “lying on his back fully clothed with his boots on” – by a police officer at the scene. Hunt apparently noticed “bloodstaining around his left wrist”.

SAM – And Hunt’s recollection of the position of Dr Kelly’s body is relevant.

MILES - Its highly relevant but we will come on to that. Anyway Hunt then spoke to Chief Inspector Alan Young of Thames Valley Police, who ran the investigation into Dr Kelly’s death, before walking up into the wood wearing fully protective clothing, latex gloves and a mask. At 12.35pm, following just a visual observation, he re-confirmed that Dr Kelly was dead, which I would guess is standard practice.  

Then there was a fingertip search of the path leading up to the Hill, with officers being told to QUOTE “look for medicine or pill bottles, pills, pill foils or any receptacle or bag that may contain medicines”. Nothing was found.

SAM – What’s the relevance of this?

MILES - Well this was the first time anybody had said Dr Kelly’s death might be linked to an overdose, suggesting that somebody had already gone through Dr Kelly’s pockets and found the three packets of coproxamol tablets which Nicholas Hunt was about to discover. But who FIRST found these pills has never been revealed. 

SAM – Because up until this point Dr Kelly’s death was just assumed to have been a result of the wound to his wrist, is that right?

MILES – As far as we know, yes.

SAM – Who else was at the scene that afternoon?

MILES - Hunt returned to the body at 2.10pm. This time he was with someone called Roy Green and also Green’s colleague Dr Eileen Hickey, both employees of a private company called Forensic Alliance Ltd. It was at the time the country’s largest independent supplier of forensic science. Their role was to interpret whatever blood evidence they found, with a view to assisting with what the police thought at the time could be a crime scene. 

SAM – So they do the sort of work people will be familiar with from TV police dramas - taking notes, photographs, and helping with various tests to establish what might have happened. 

MILES – Yes. And a blue tent had by this time been put up over Dr Kelly’s body on Harrowdown Hill to protect it from the elements. There was a bigger, white tent in the field at the edge of the wood to provide shelter for those involved in the search who had to fill in paperwork. 

SAM – So Hunt got to work, what did he find?

MILES - Hunt had a closer look at the body and, according to his notes, he was able to see that Dr Kelly’s left arm was extended out at approximately shoulder level and his right arm was over his chest. 

He said Dr Kelly wore jeans, a striped shirt, a green waxed coat made by the company Barbour, beige socks and Timberland walking boots. He also wore a brown leather belt which had a mobile phone pouch clipped to it. 

And then he observed on the ground next to him was an open knife with a slightly curved blade, and a digital watch. 

SAM – What do we know about the knife? 

MILES - After the knife was discovered at the scene, it wasn’t seen by anybody other than the police, Nicholas Hunt, and forensics officers. A photocopy of the knife was shown to Mrs Kelly in the hope that she could identify it. Apparently it was one he had owned since boyhood. A kind of penknife and what’s interesting about is it it had a pretty blunt blade and if youre talking about slicing through skin and tendons with it that’s highly relevant.

SAM – And what about the pills?

MILES - Hunt checked the Barbour and found, in the front right-hand pocket: a pair of glasses; a key fob; and a mobile phone. And also three blister packs of coproxamol prescription painkillers that were in his jacket. 

SAM – OK. What is known about these packets of pills?

MILES - Each pack could hold 10 tablets. Two packets were empty and the third contained one pill, giving the immediate impression that Dr Kelly had swallowed up to 29 pills.  No outer packaging was found so there was no way of knowing where these pills were from.

SAM – And what about DNA testing?

MILES – Yes there was a search for what’s called QUOTE “trace evidence” on Dr Kelly’s body, such as fibres or third party DNA. The body was undressed at the scene and 30 swabs were taken from it. Dr Kelly’s clothes, shoes and personal items were also checked for DNA and fibre contamination. Hunt logged in a tape recorder any item at the scene on which he could find a bloodstain or traces of blood, as well as the places on Dr Kelly’s body where he could find any blood. 

SAM – Was there a lot of blood?

MILES – Well I will read the list of places Hunt found blood because it will be easier.

Hunt’s post mortem report notes say that at the scene he found blood on Dr Kelly’s left wrist, which at that time showed “five incised wounds”. He also found blood staining on the front of Dr Kelly’s shirt; on the right knee of his jeans; in the left-hand sleeve of his Barbour and over the coat itself; also, on the fingers and palm of his right hand. There was a small blood spot on his right ear, right cheek and the right side of his neck.

SAM: Anywhere else?

MILES: Yes, blood was also found on the items found to the left of his body: the watch, which had been taken off and was face down; the knife handle and its open blade; and his Barbour cap. 

An upright water bottle, positioned against some broken branches about a foot to the left of Dr Kelly’s left elbow, and its bottle top, were also bloodstained suggesting that Dr Kelly might have drunk from the bottle while injured.

Finally Hunt also recorded that there was further blood staining to his left side running across the undergrowth and the soil, over an area of  “two to three feet”. Blood was also seen “around the knife and underneath it” on the ground.

SAM – From his report it sounds as though there was a lot of blood at the scene.

MILES – Yes and no. But we will come to that. Hunt’s notes also show he found two trails of what he speculated was vomit, running from either side of Dr Kelly’s mouth towards his ears and around the lips.  There was some vomit staining over the left shoulder of the Barbour and also on the ground near Dr Kelly’s left shoulder. 

SAM – And what about Roy Green, the forensics man you mentioned, what did he find?

MILES - Green believed that he found QUOTE “blood distribution” which he thought had originated from Dr Kelly’s left wrist and that he saw what’s known as “arterial rain” – spurts of blood which had exited Dr Kelly’s body at high pressure when he severed an artery - on the stinging nettles beside his body. Green said there was “a fair bit of blood” and it had been absorbed by detritus on the wood floor such as leaves, rather as blotting paper absorbs ink. Green added that in his opinion the blood stain on the right knee of Dr Kelly’s jeans would have been caused by his kneeling on the ground at some point, and coming into contact with his own blood on the ground. 

SAM – Was Green at the scene for long?

MILES - Green and his colleague Eileen Hickey were at the scene for roughly five hours and left at about 7pm. According to Green, about 50 items were sent to his laboratory for DNA profiling which Green was to supervise. 

SAM – And what about Hunt the pathologist?

MILES – Well there is evidence of unorthodox behaviour when it comes to Hunt. The last thing Hunt did before leaving the scene was to take Dr Kelly’s body temperature. He did this at 7.15pm – over 7 hours after he’d arrived. Many medical experts have told me this was potentially reckless in terms of working out a time of death as accurately as possible. Hunt might have taken the body temperature as early as possible in order to isolate as accurately as possible time which Dr Kelly died. 

SAM – So what was the consequence of this?

MILES - Hunt’s decision to leave it until after 7pm meant that he could only guess that Dr Kelly had died at some point over the previous 27 hours – that is to say between 4.15pm on 17 July, an hour after he had left his house, and 1.15am on 18 July, eight hours before his body was found. 

SAM – Does the body temperature he did record give any further clues?

MILES – No. He recorded a body temperature of 24 Celsius or 75 Farenheit using the Henssge (HESSA) nomogram, which analyses body temperature measurement, to reach this time. 

SAM – This body temperature is important, as we’ll see. But was that it as far as the search of the scene goes?

MILES - Pretty much. As soon as Hunt had finished at the scene, there was a fingertip search of the area inside the taped off area where the body had been found. It took 20 minutes and like similar searches that day turned up no results. Officers said they found no sign of any struggle in the wood either.

SAM – OK, so what happened next?

MILES - Hunt headed back to the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, where he had a long night’s work ahead of him performing the post mortem on Dr Kelly’s body once it had been transferred there. Hunt began the post mortem examination of Dr Kelly at 9.20pm. 

SAM – What can you tell us about the post mortem?

MILES – Well, the first odd thing was that the senior investigating Thames Valley Police officer, Chief Inspector Alan Young, was present and he was accompanied by 9 other police officers. It is said the presence of 10 witnesses at a post mortem is very unusual. Some police will argue it is standard procedure for such a large gathering where a death is being treated as “suspicious”. But that day the police had already been more than happy to leave the press and the public with the impression that Dr Kelly’s death was suicide, which surely eliminated any sense of suspicion. 

SAM – And what about the findings of the post mortem itself?

MILES - Hunt examined Dr Kelly’s skin for any marks, concentrating on his left wrist initially. He recorded a series of incised wounds of varying depths running across its front. He found that the ulnar artery had been completely severed and the ulnar nerve had been partially severed. The ulnar artery is very small – about the size of a matchstick – and it’s located just under the little finger.

SAM – This is such a key aspect of this idea that the death was a suicide. Because didn’t Hunt find that the major artery in the forearm, the radial artery, was intact as was the radial nerve? And doesn't this throw up all sorts of questions about whether it’s possible to bleed to death from cutting the ulnar artery?

MILES - Yes. There are many doctors who say it is not possible to bleed to death by severing the ulnar artery, so this is highly relevant. Hunt also said there were also many QUOTE “hesitation marks” on the wrist – less severe wounds caused by apparent slashing attempts while, presumably, building up courage - though it has never been clear on what side of the wrist these marks were made. 

Hunt’s conclusion about the wrist injury was that the reddening around it indicated that the wounds were inflicted while Dr Kelly was alive. He said the cuts on Dr Kelly’s left wrist were 5cm-8cm long and one of them had punctured his ulnar artery.

SAM – And did Hunt examine the rest of Dr Kelly’s body?

MILES - Elsewhere on the body Hunt conducted an external and internal examination, starting with the head. It showed several “abrasions” just behind the left ear, all less than 3cm. He concluded that these were “consistent with scraping against rough undergrowth such as twigs and branches which were present at the scene.”

The legs showed four minor red lesions at calf and thigh level, three of which were described by Hunt during the post mortem as being “of uncertain origin”. These lesions were apparently typical of areas of hair follicle irritation or skin irritation, and were not injuries or puncture wounds, in his opinion.

Hunt’s internal examination showed a small abrasion in the midline of the lower lip, consistent, he thought, with contact against the teeth or biting of the lips. 

The teeth were uninjured. 

He then found two areas of bruising just below the right knee.

Despite the later views of medical experts as to the unlikelihood of this, Hunt concluded that the main factor which caused Dr Kelly’s death was bleeding from the wounds to his wrist.

SAM – What other tests did they run?

MILES - He also sent samples to be tested for drugs that could have been used to tranquilise Dr Kelly. Something like a strong sedative. None was found. 

SAM – And didn’t they make another crucial discovery about an underlying condition that Dr Kelly had?

MILES – Yes, a key discovery from the post mortem was that Dr Kelly had without realising it been suffering from a severe form of coronary heart disease called atherosclerosis. Now this was unexpected because Dr Kelly had undergone a Ministry of Defence medical examination earlier that month on 8 July – 9 days before he disappeared. Nothing about a heart condition had come out of that. 

Yet Hunt said two of his main coronary arteries were found to be much narrower than normal, creating a significant risk of cardiac arrest. This apparently left his heart vulnerable to sudden blood loss, and may have made him more susceptible to stress. According to Hunt, it also made his heart less able to withstand a synthetic opiate like the one found in the painkiller which it was assumed he had taken, coproxamol. 

SAM - So it seems like a fairly conclusive post mortem but there’s more to this isnt there Miles? 

MILES - There certainly is. Hunt finished it at midnight but it is clear that he must have been tired when he began it almost three hours earlier because his notes state that, early on in the procedure, he weighed and measured Dr Kelly and found him to be an “adequately nourished” man of 59kg, or 9 stone 4 pounds, who was about 5ft 6in tall. 

SAM – And we know this isn’t true is that right?

MILES – Well earlier that day police had issued a description in which they said he was 5ft 8in tall. And his weight at death, as recorded by Hunt, was also surprising, because at the medical he had nine days before he was found his weight was 74kg, or 11 stone 6 pounds. 

SAM – These are pretty major miscalculations for pathologist to make. What can you say about them?

MILES – Well they were later blamed on faulty hospital scales but they just make no sense. There’s a big difference between 9 stone and 11 stone. And some scientists think these miscalculations had a significant impact on Hunt’s time of death estimation because accurately recorded body weights and measurements are vital in this regard. Remember also – Hunt had been very vague about what time Dr Kelly died. He only managed to narrow it down to a very unsatisfactory 27 hour period.  

SAM – So there’s that inconsistency but there are more troubling aspects to the post mortem, is that right?

MILES – I’m afraid so. During the post mortem Hunt also stated that Dr Kelly’s liver weighed 134gms – less than the weight of either of his kidneys, which were logged as weighing 159gms and 166gms. This makes no sense. The liver is the largest internal organ in a human body and usually weighs about 1.5kgs. 

SAM – It seems like a very strange oversight to get all these things wrong. 

MILES - Despite these discrepancies, Hunt concluded there was no forensic evidence to support the idea that a third party was involved in Dr Kelly’s death. 

SAM – We’ll come back to more of Hunt’s findings later on but for now, let’s rewind a bit. Because as I said a few minutes ago, while all of this was going on, there had also been a lot of activity in London. 

So we know Tony Blair – on a plane flying to Tokyo – had heard very early on on the 18th of July that a body had been found; and we know that he immediately told Lord Falconer in London to find someone to chair a public inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death; and we also know that by midday Falconer secured Lord Hutton for this very sensitive job.

So what happened next in terms of constructing this inqury in London Miles?

MILES – Well first, we should say a bit about Hutton. He was 72 years old. He was an Establishment man: public school, Oxford University, a barrister since 1954, a QC since 1970 and he was made Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland in 1988. 

I find it very interesting that when he was asked by Lord Falconer on that Friday morning whether he would chair this public inquiry, he agreed to do so immediately. It appears that he didn’t even need to consult his wife, whom he had married exactly two years before, to notify her that he was taking on this very public, time-consuming commitment. He must have known he was going to have to spend the entire summer and several months beyond dealing with the Dr Kelly affair but he was apparently quite happy to jump to attention.

SAM – So while Dr Kelly’s body lay in the woods, before anyone had any idea how he had died, the government spin operation was running at top speed, with Falconer recruiting the man that it wanted to explore this problematic death. That’s the point you’re making?

MILES – Exactly the point I’m making.

SAM - What else can you tell us about Falconer, Miles?

MILES – Well he was a very old friend of Tony Blair. They had shared a flat in the 1970s. He was a solicitor and Blair had recently made him Lord Chancellor. So - legally, he knew exactly what he was doing. Again, it is very interesting to me that by setting up this public inquiry, Falconer put in place the mechanism by which the government could - and would - take full control of the examination of Dr Kelly’s death. 

SAM – What do you mean?

MILES – Well, normally any sudden, violent or unnatural death in England or Wales is subject to a coroner’s inquest. It has been this way for centuries. But while Dr Kelly’s body lay on Harrowdown Hill, Falconer was busy doing the ground-work which would eventually allow the government to bypass a coroner’s inquest and instead hold a much looser, non-statutory public inquiry chaired by its own handpicked official Lord Hutton. 

SAM – Had Hutton ever chaired a public inquiry before?

MILES – Just one – and that was into the diversion of a river in Northern Ireland. 

SAM – So let's just be clear about the differences between a public inquiry – which Blair was insisting on - and a coroner’s inquest – which would normally take place in a situation like this with a sudden, unexplained death. What are the differences Miles? 

MILES - A coroner’s inquest is an independent inquiry chaired by a coroner. It is held to establish where, when and how someone died. It is a rigorous examination of the facts. Witnesses can be legally compelled to attend. Witnesses swear an oath before giving evidence. And as a result of its independence, a coroner’s inquest has a potentially unpredictable outcome such as an open verdict being reached, whereby a coroner states it is not possible to conclude how the person in question died. 

A public inquiry, chaired by a man appointed by the government, can be the very opposite of transparent if fashioned accordingly. And this one was unmistakably tilted in the government’s favour.

SAM – In what way?

MILES - None of the standards I’ve just mentioned applied to the Hutton Inquiry. And in fact, it had already quietly been decided at the highest level that it was not even going to be a formal public inquiry convened under the relevant Act. 

Had it been a formal inquiry, the resolution of both houses of parliament would have been required. With the summer recess having just begun, it would have been difficult to reconvene MPs and house of lords. This meant the Hutton Inquiry had no parliamentary authority.

SAM – So the Hutton Inquiry was an ad hoc public inquiry with no formal powers. Were certain powers invested in Hutton? 

MILES - Yes Hutton had total control over who would appear and what documents could be disclosed. But you’re right: having been set up so quickly, it had no legal weight at all. It was, in essence, a private inquiry which Blair and Falconer established. When all is said and done, the findings of the Hutton Inquiry were nothing more than the opinions of one man, Lord Hutton, albeit a senior judicial figure.

SAM – You think all involved wer aware of this?

MILES – It’s hard to see how he wouldn’t have been aware of it. He would also have known that coroners are often reluctant to record a verdict of suicide unless they are satisfied “beyond reasonable doubt” that an individual intended to take their own life and then did so. This level of proof is often not met, even when someone has been found with a ligature around their neck, as inquests in England and Wales demonstrate most weeks of the year. 

By contrast, Hutton’s public inquiry would have been required by its government appointees to reach a solid conclusion, not an ambiguous one.

SAM – So we have an unexpected death; the prime minister then involves himself in the investigation into this sudden death before its cause is even known; and then Tony Blair sets in motion a way of guaranteeing that the death is investigated less rigorously than it normally would be.

MILES – That’s right. It’s hard to understand why this should have happened, isn’t it?

SAM – So what do you think was going on?

MILES – Given what we’ve just been talking about, I think somebody close to the government must have worked out on Friday 18 July 2003 what type of inquiry would be preferable in handling the hugely unfortunate matter of Dr Kelly’s sudden death, given the choice. 

SAM - Why was Hutton chosen for the delicate task of inquiring into Dr Kelly’s death do you think? 

MILES – That’s a good question. There were clearly other judges who might have been capable of undertaking this task, yet Falconer has admitted that Hutton was the first and only person he asked to do it. He was his first choice. He was a senior judge who was considered a safe pair of hands. That’s all I can say for sure. 

SAM – Were there factors in Hutton’s professional background which might not have made him everybody’s automatic first choice for this?

MILES – Well Hutton was a judge in Northern Ireland during many of the IRA’s most active years. Given his position, he needed round the clock protection from the security services and police, and unarguably owed a huge personal debt to these men who guarded his life. It’s been suggested he might have been reluctant to look at any possible involvement or negligence in regard to Dr Kelly’s death on the part of MI5, MI6 or Special Branch? Certainly, as a judge who was known to be conservative as opposed to radical, he was unlikely to rock the boat.

SAM – So another thing you’ve also established is that on the same day that Hutton was appointed, he rang a barrister and asked him to act as senior counsel to the inquiry. What can you tell us about the barrister Dingemans?

MILES – Well, like Hutton, Dingemans also agreed to do his duty on the spot. He was 38, pretty young really, and was known to Hutton in a legal context. Hutton rated him highly as a lawyer. But although he had solid experience in commercial law and in other areas of the law, like Hutton himself he had no known track record in the field of public inquiries or in the coroners courts. So you might say he was also a bit of a surprising choice.

SAM – So as senior counsel to the inquiry Dinemans would have to undertake a very important job. And, as we’ll see, Hutton showed him a lot of loyalty in picking him for this very sensitive job. Has Dingemans ever talked about his part in the Hutton inquiry?

MILES – Well after the Hutton Inquiry finished, Dingemans was asked some questions by a newspaper reporter about the inquiry and his role in it. 

SAM – And what did he say?

MILES - He told the journalist that he could only imagine one occasion on which he would ever discuss any aspect of the Hutton Inquiry. He said: “Perhaps on my death bed.”

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SAM - In the next episode we explore a very strange occurrence concerning Dr Kelly’s dentist. And we look back, in detail, at the infamous Hutton inquiry.