The death of Doctor David Kelly

Nicholas Hunt spent eight hours examining the body of the government weapons inspector for signs of foul play but found none.

Swabs taken from his body for DNA testing failed to find evidence of the involvement of a third party.

The Home Office pathologist has disclosed details from his post-mortem report for the firs time, which the official inquiry into Dr Kelly's death banned from publication for 70 years.

Conspiracy theorists have come up with a number of reasons why they think Dr Kelly was murdered by shadowy government figures after revealing his concerns over the war in Iraq.

Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, has said they "may have a valid point" and that he is prepared to apply for a full inquest if convincing new evidence emerges.

The doubters point to the apparent lack of blood found at the scene but Mr Hunt said he found "big clots" on the inside of Kelly's Barbour jacket and soaked into the ground and noted them in his report.
Dr Kelly had about a dozen cuts on his left wrist of varying sizes, he said, including "hesitation" cuts — shallow cuts that he made as he tried to summon the resolve to kill himself.

The conspiracy theorists – including a number of doctors who wrote to a national newspaper earlier this month - say that the cuts would not be enough to kill because the ulner artery would clot.

But Mr Hunt said Dr Kelly’s wrist was red from where he had been rubbing it to keep the blood flowing.

“Every forensic pathologist has had cases where [severance of the ulnar artery] has been the sole cause of death," he added.
But there were other contributing factors, particularly that two of Dr Kelly's main coronary arteries were 70 to 80 per cent narrower than normal and his heart disease was so severe that he could have "dropped dead" at any moment.

The heart condition may have been exacerbated by an overdose of co-proxamol, a strong pain killer withdrawn from sale in 2007 after it concerns that it caused arhythmia in some patients.

The conclusion of the autopsy was that the primary cause of death was haemorrhage due to the incised wounds of his left wrist, with the co-proxamol overdose and coronary artery atherosclerosis listed as secondary causes.

His findings were reviewed by Nat Cary, one of the country's most senior forensic pathologists, who came to the same conclusion.

Mr Hunt added: "I felt very, very sorry for David Kelly and was horrified by the way he had been treated by the government ... I had every reason to look for something untoward and would dearly love to have found something," he said.

"It was an absolute classic case of self-inflicted injury. You could illustrate a textbook with it. If it were anyone else and you were to suggest there's something foul about it, you would be referred for additional training. I would welcome an inquest, I've nothing to hide."

Dr Kelly was found dead in woods near his Oxfordshire home in July 2003, a week after having been exposed as the source of a BBC story that the government had "sexed up" a dossier on the threat posed by Iraq.

An inquiry by Lord Hutton into the death was held instead of an inquest. It concluded that the father of three had committed suicide.

Andrew Davison, a fellow Home Office pathologist, said last week that the controversy over the weapons inspector's death was being fuelled by those without the "relevant pathology expertise".

"This is not a game of Cluedo, and it is beginning to look suspiciously like a crusade for some individuals," he said.