Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Law chief orders probe into secret files on death of Dr David Kelly/ Mail Online

UPDATE:  From the October 18 MailOnline:


Ambulance chiefs face renewed pressure to explain the loss of a key medical record relating to the death of Dr David Kelly after the investigating police force said it had no record of ever having received the document.
Bosses at South Central Ambulance NHS Trust were criticised last month when The Mail on Sunday revealed they could not find the patient report form (PRF) completed by paramedic Vanessa Hunt, who attended the scene of the former weapons inspector’s death in 2003...
Dr Michael Powers QC, who is leading a group of doctors campaigning for an inquest into Dr Kelly’s death, accused the Ambulance Trust of trying to shift the blame.

‘The document is the closest thing to a full record of what the ambulance team at the scene saw and noted down. I would have expected such a form to have been filled out and to have been kept, particularly given national and international interest in the case.’

Unresolved issues: Lord Hutton's inquiry concluded that Dr Kelly slit his writs to kill himself - but a key medical record relating to his death is still missing

At the time of the death, Ms Hunt and her colleague Dave Bartlett, who also attended the scene in woods near Dr Kelly’s home, worked for Oxfordshire Ambulance Trust.
Mr Bartlett’s claim in The Mail on Sunday last month that Dr Kelly’s body had been moved added to the increasing demand for an inquest...
From the Sept. 24 Daily Mail:
Secret files on the death of Dr David Kelly will be handed over to medical experts to see if the suicide verdict can be challenged.
Ministers want independent advice on whether there are any discrepancies or unanswered questions in the post mortem examination report.
Home Office pathologist Nicholas Hunt concluded the weapons inspector died after cutting a small artery in his wrist. But a group of doctors campaigning for an inquest into Dr Kelly’s death claim he would not have lost enough blood to end his life.
Attorney General Dominic Grieve wants to establish whether they have a solid case.
The Mail can reveal the doctors have now begun legal action, calling on Mr Grieve to petition the High Court for an inquest.
...  Lord Hutton had instructed the papers should remain secret for 70 years. But Mr Grieve used special powers he holds to take control of the files – which campaigners believe could hold the key to the case...

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