In Lord Hutton's opening statement his intention to hold the inquiry in two stages was spelt out together with his reasoning behind this. I think it is just as easy for the reader to interpret Hutton's thoughts here by going to the official website rather than me to try and explain the logicality behind the process. Suffice to say that his Lordship made his opening statement on 1st August 2003 and took evidence for stage one from Monday 11th August till lunchtime on Thursday 4th September. Hearings were then adjourned until Monday 15th September and stage two ran through till Hutton's closing statement on the 25th of that month. It had to reconvene for a day on 13th October for Sir Kevin Tebbit's examination, Sir Kevin having had an eye operation at the time he would normally have given evidence.
On the morning of 3rd September we hear from ACC Page in response to Mr Dingemans:
Q. What was the name of the pathologist who --
A. The pathologist was Mr Nicholas Hunt.
Q. We were hoping to call Mr Hunt to give evidence this morning, but he is on holiday and he is coming in stage 2. Just so that we can keep the evidence chronological, perhaps you can assist me in identifying some of the material parts of his findings.
A. Yes, my Lord.
A little later Dr Hunt is mentioned again before reference is made to Mr Green:
Q. And we will hear from him but unhappily not today. What other searches were carried out at the scene? You have mentioned a forensic biologist. What do they do?
A. A forensic biologist, I believe you will be hearing from one later --
Q. Who was the forensic biologist?
A. A Mr Green I think. Yes, Mr Rory Green.
Q. I think you have very kindly arranged for him to come along later today?
A. That is correct, my Lord.
Mr Green does indeed arrive that afternoon to give evidence and at the end is thanked for coming at short notice. This again demonstrates the farce of the Hutton Inquiry, the implication being that Mr Green came at short notice because Dr Hunt failed to show up and that it was the industry of ACC Page that ensured that the inquiry wasn't left with a gap that afternoon. Dr Hunt hadn't been suddenly taken ill he was away on holiday for goodness sake! The nature of Mr Green's evidence meant that he would be a candidate for stage one of the Inquiry, which finished at lunchtime the following day anyway. So why does Mr Dingemans say to Mr Green 'Thank you for coming at short notice'?
Very interesting, Brian. Mr Green refers immediately to his notes which, perhaps, he made in the taxi after his last minute call-up.
ReplyDeleteI have two observations about his evidence. How did Dr Kelly kneel in a pool of blood, when all other injuries were consistent with lying or sitting. (otherwise he would perhaps have fallen forwards on his face)?
And Mr Dingemans lets the cat out of the bag that Dr Kelly was right-handed when it has not been established at that time. To cover this accident of Mr Dingemans introducing evidence, we have the farce of a letter TVP/16/0001 concerning this essential information being put into the publc domain in January 2004, the afterthough of Karen Roberts a TVP Family Liaison officer who had, we are led to believe, on the 19th July, nearly 6 months previously, taken on the responsibility of being a detective. WPC Roberts had been introducted into the inquiry by DS Geoffrey Webb in his own evidence. Her job was to look after the Kelly family.
The evidence of DS Webb is interesting. He was directed from Abingdon Police station to the Kelly house, arriving about 6am, later on joined by WPC Roberts. Allegedly,a Sgt Simon Morris had spent the night at the Kelly family house (which could have been a crime scene and was subsequently treated as such)
ReplyDeleteHe returned to Abingdon police station to assist in the briefing at about 5.15 am. So was the potential crime scene left without a police presence for over an hour??
What else did DS Webb say? Fascinating...
Q. What had gone on during the night?
A. As I understand it, they had done some searching of the area, as much as they could possibly do in the dark.
Q. Who had done that?
A. Uniformed police officers.
Q. Do you remember how many
A. I could not say at the moment
So, what was going on on the ground???
PS There is a surprising discrepancy in DS Webb's evidence. No sooner than he says he left Abingdon for Southmoor at 6.am, than he says he arrived at the Kelly house at 7.15am. Where had he been for the missing hour? Harrowdown? And then he only spends 45 minutes at the house, then leaves (without saying WPC Roberts had already arrived by then) before leaving for Abingdon again ,and then popping up again at Southmoor to convey the news that a body had been found and rifle through Dr Kelly's papers.... Were the family left alone a second time?
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