Dog Handler Found Scientist's Body Slumped Against Tree

Suicide expert says 'little doubt' that David Kelly took his own life

September 2, 2003
By PA News Reporters

A woman and her dog, helping a police search team, told today how she found the body of weapons expert David Kelly slumped against a tree in woods near his Oxfordshire home.

Louise Holmes told the Hutton Inquiry investigating Dr Kelly's death that her dog Brock picked up a scent 200 yards into the woods and then barked to alert her to something he had found.

She said: "I could see a body slumped against the bottom of a tree."

Ms Holmes said she stood "within a few feet of the body".

She continued: "He was at the base of the tree with almost his head on his shoulders, just slumped back against the tree.

"His legs were straight in front of him, his right arm was to the side of him, his left arm had a lot of blood on it and was bent back in a funny position."

Asked if there were any signs of the route Dr Kelly had taken through the trees, she replied: "Not that I remember seeing."

Earlier, Ms Holmes, a trainer with the charity Hearing Dogs For Deaf People, who is also a member of a search and rescue team in Oxfordshire, said when she began her search at 8am on July 18 - the day after Dr Kelly went missing - she did not know who the weapons expert was.

Professor Keith Hawton, Director of the Centre for Suicide Research at Oxford University, told the inquiry that he had little doubt Dr Kelly had taken his own life.


Professor Hawton stated: "I think that taking all the evidence together, it is well nigh certain that he had committed suicide."


Asked by James Dingemans QC, counsel to the inquiry, how he came to that conclusion, he said: "Firstly the site in which the death occurred. I heard it had occurred in an isolated spot on Harrowdown Hill. In fact, it was in woodlands about 40 to 50 yards off the track taken by ramblers.


"The site is well protected from the view of other people. It struck me as a very peaceful and rather beautiful spot in an area that was a favourite walk of Dr Kelly and his family."


Professor Hawton said Dr Kelly's injuries were consistent with self cutting but he asked not to go into detail.


He said that Dr Kelly had removed his glasses and had also taken off his watch, which suggested better access to carry out the suicide.


He said he had read the toxicology report on Dr Kelly and it appeared the government scientist had consumed well in excess of the "therapeutic" dose of Co-proxamol.


There was no sign of struggle so he had concluded that Dr Kelly had cut his wrist with his own knife that he had taken from his drawer.

Prof Hawton said he believed the two key factors in Dr Kelly's death were that he thought he had been publicly disgraced so he might not be able to continue to work, and that he was unable to share his feelings.


He said Dr Kelly might have thought he was going to lose his job because of a letter from the Ministry of Defence warning of disciplinary proceedings, and Parliamentary questions about his dealings with the media.


"I think that would have filled him with a profound sense of hopelessness - in a sense, his life's work had been not wasted but totally undermined."

The inquiry at the High Court in London also heard from Dr Kelly's neighbour Ruth Absolom, who met the scientist as she was walking her dog the day he disappeared, and who is assumed to be the last person to see him alive.

She described her final meeting with her neighbour, saying she had taken her dog Buster for a walk at about 3pm on 17 July.

She said she had met Dr Kelly shortly afterwards in Longworth, the next village along from their homes in Southmoor.

Asked how he was dressed she said: "Normally, I didn't take that much notice.

"He had obviously got a jacket on but whether it was a suit or an odd jacket and trousers I have no idea."

She described the meeting saying: "We just stopped and said hello, had a chat.

"He said 'Hello Ruth'. I said 'Hello David, how are things?'

"He said 'Not too bad'.

"We stood there for a few moments and then Buster, my dog, was pulling on the lead, he wanted to get going. I said 'I will have to go, David'. He said 'See you again, then, Ruth'. And that was it, we parted."

Asked how the scientist had seemed, she said: "Just his normal self, no different to any other time when I met him."

She said she did not remember if he was carrying any items. A knife and a bottle of painkillers were found by police near Dr Kelly's body.

The scientist's family doctor Malcolm Warner told the inquiry he had not prescribed any painkillers for Dr Kelly and had last treated him in 1999 for "a minor complaint" and had never treated him for any serious condition.

Dr Warner said nothing significant was found in a medical check Dr Kelly had received through his work on 8 July.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=439516