Government climbdown over David Kelly post-mortem report

Dr David Kelly: Doctors challenging the official verdict that the scientist committed suicide will be able to see his medical records

The Government has backed down over a move which threatened to delay the release of the post-mortem of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly.



Last month Lord Hutton, who chaired the inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death in 2003, said he was happy for a group of doctors - challenging the official verdict that the scientist committed suicide - to see his medical records, including the post-mortem report and photographs.

The peer’s surprise decision came two days after The Mail on Sunday revealed that he had secretly ordered the documents to be barred from the public for 70 years.

The doctors then wrote to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) asking to see the material. But they were told their request was being treated under the terms of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act which contains several caveats giving the Government the right to refuse access to some official papers.

On Friday The Mail on Sunday contacted the MoJ to ask why the doctors’ request was being dealt with under the FoI Act and within hours lawyers acting for the doctors were told the department had changed its mind and would accept the request under normal terms.

Dr Kelly’s body was found after he was exposed as the source of a BBC report questioning the grounds for war in Iraq.



No coroner’s inquest has ever been held into his death. The only official verdict has come from the Hutton Inquiry, which concluded that Dr Kelly died after cutting his wrist with a blunt gardening knife.

Last night Dr Michael Powers QC, one of the doctors lobbying for an inquest, said: ‘This was a deliberate attempt at delay. If this evidence only confirms the cause of Dr Kelly’s death given at the Inquiry, why is the Government fearful of us seeing it?’



