Attorney General refuses to open David Kelly files: Papers hold key to fresh inquest



Attorney General Dominic Grieve is refusing to open secret files which hold the key to David Kelly’s death, it has emerged.

The decision on whether to order an inquest hinges on a bundle of documents which are locked in a Whitehall safe for up to 70 years.

They include the post-mortem examination report and other sensitive medical notes.

A group of doctors insists that the weapons inspector could not have committed suicide and bled to death in the way described by the official Hutton Inquiry.

Inquest calls: A group of doctors insists that Dr David Kelly could not have committed suicide and bled to death

They have called for Mr Grieve to open the files, in the hope that they will provide the evidence he needs to petition the High Court for an inquest.

But Mr Grieve is refusing to look at them, despite having the legal power to gain immediate access.

Instead, he is insisting that justice secretary Ken Clarke makes a decision on whether to release them.

This is despite the fact that Mr Grieve wrote to campaigners while in opposition saying he ‘would review’ all the associated medical and scientific records.

He was shadow justice secretary at the time. Now he is arguing that it would be ‘extremely unusual’ for him to ask for the papers.

He said Mr Clarke should decide whether to release the papers to the doctors, who would then pass them on to him, even though he could walk across Whitehall and collect them today.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Grieve said: ‘The Attorney General has no investigative function. Whilst he could ask for the papers it would be extremely unusual for him to take a proactive step of that kind.’

Dr Kelly’s body was found in woods near his Oxfordshire home in July 2003 after he was identified as the source of a BBC story claiming the Labour government ‘sexed up’ its dossier on Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction.

Instead of a normal inquest, the Government set up the Hutton Inquiry to investigate the death. It concluded that Dr Kelly took his own life.

Lord Hutton then ordered the documents relating to the case be classified for 70 years.

An aerial view of Harrowdown Hill, Oxfordshire, where Dr Kelly's body was discovered in July 2003

Mr Grieve’s comments came as he said that he had not yet seen any new evidence to justify holding an inquest.

He also said there was ‘not a shred of evidence’ that there had been a cover-up.

Nine doctors have written an open letter casting grave doubt on the verdict that Dr Kelly died from loss of blood after cutting a small artery in his wrist. Mr Grieve has also been sent a medical report by a group of eminent doctors suggesting it would have been ‘impossible’ for Dr Kelly to lose sufficient blood through the artery to kill him.

The Attorney General said: ‘It’s right to say that hunches, theories are not enough – there has to be evidence. And if the evidence is available and people feel that they have the evidence, then if they send it to me it will be considered’.

He added: ‘I have no reason to think... and not a shred of evidence to suggest that there has been a cover up.

‘I know that some people have put some theories forward but if you’re going to put a theory forward like that you need some evidence and as matters stand at the moment I haven’t seen any evidence. But if there is any evidence my office is the place to send it to.’

Mr Grieve stressed that he had to take account of the feelings of Dr Kelly’s close family, who have not called for a fresh investigation.

Yesterday it was publicly stated for the first time that Dr Kelly’s relatives do not want an inquiry.

By placing responsibility for the sensitive decision at Mr Clarke’s door, Mr Grieve risks causing irritation within the Government.

The principal cause of death accepted by Lord Hutton was bleeding from a severed ulnar artery.

But Detective Constable Graham Coe, who found the body, said earlier this month that there had not been much blood at the scene.

Those calling for an inquest also include ex-Home Secretary Lord Howard, former Labour defence minister Peter Kilfoyle and the Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker.



Dr Andrew Davison, a Home Office pathologist, responded to the calls by saying that the circumstances of Dr Kelly’s death were ‘not a game of Cluedo’ and should be left to the experts.



Weapons expert was allowed to see secrets far outside his brief

By MILES GOSLETT



David Kelly had access to highly sensitive international intelligence material far beyond that relating to weapons of mass destruction, it was revealed last night.

A Ministry of Defence security clearance form shows he had permission to access all relevant intelligence documents of British or American origin marked ‘Top Secret’.

The form, labelled ‘Restricted’, shows that Dr Kelly was privy to the material on what is known officially as the "need to know” principle”.

It included ‘atomic information’ and Nato-led ‘international defence organisation information’, some of which would have been accessible only via codewords to limit how many people could see it.

Sensitive: Part of the form permitting Dr Kelly to see the material

All information was available ‘subject to indoctrination’, meaning briefings he would have been given.

According to Colonel Richard Kemp, former chairman of the government’s Cobra Intelligence Group, Dr Kelly would have undergone a thorough background check that could have lasted ‘months’ before being given such clearance.



Colonel Kemp, who was also head of international terrorism for the Joint Intelligence Committee between 2002 and 2006, said: ‘I don’t think there’s a much higher level of clearance than this form offers.’

Dr Kelly’s security clearance form was signed on February 24, 2000 and was valid for seven years.

The form was submitted as evidence to the Hutton Inquiry in 2003 but is not available for public view on Inquiry’s website.

Today is the first time it has been published by a newspaper.

In his role as a weapons inspector, Dr Kelly worked closely with the intelligence services of all major industrialised countries.

He spent long periods in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, where he uncovered evidence of biological weapons laboratories including work on developing smallpox in Atlanta and Moscow.

The Daily Mail has also established that Dr Amy Smithson, an American academic who specialises in indepth research on issues related to chemical and biological weapons proliferation, has written a book which includes one of the last interviews Dr Kelly ever gave. Called Germ Gambits: The Bioweapons Dilemma, Iraq and Beyond, it will be published in 2011.

Dr Smithson, who obtained special permission from Dr Kelly’s widow, Janice, said: ‘Among his fellow inspectors Dr Kelly was considered the consummate inspector.



‘They admired him tremendously for his very effective interviewing technique; his encyclopedic knowledge; and his determination to out the truth about the former Soviet and Iraqi biological weapons programmes.



‘Put another way, David’s colleagues were somewhat in awe of his skills as an inspector'.

