Sergeant Alan Dadd

This will be a short post because the person concerned, Sergeant Alan Dadd hardly got a mention at the time in relation to the death of Dr David Kelly.

So far as I can see he is mentioned just once in the Hutton Inquiry and that's in this bit of testimony by PC Sawyer.  Mr Knox has got to the point where the ambulance crew have arrived at the parking area at the bottom of the track:

Q. Those two paramedics had obviously arrived separately from you?
A. They had arrived more or less at the same time we did. So the five of us went up because we were with Sergeant Alan Dadd as well.


In the Mail on Sunday of 12 September 2010 Matt Sandy wrote an article from the perspective of the ambulance crew and says:


They were met at the scene by Sergeant Alan Dadd and several other officers.  He led them up a bridle path towards the woods ...

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm not aware of his name elsewhere in connection with Dr Kelly's death.  As I recall things PC Franklin takes over the scene at the body from DC Coe only to leave the site to go back down the track with PC Sawyer to bring up the police landrover!  Surely as the more senior officer Sergeant Dadd should have taken charge - at least until DI Ashley Smith or some other higher ranking officer came.

But this is Thames Valley Police where nothing is normal ..... 

DC2368 COE

'I wish to further that I showed the body to DC2368 COE at 09.40 hrs.'  This sentence comes from the police witness statement of search volunteer Paul Chapman as quoted in Annex TVP1 on the Attorney General's site. (I'm assuming that in fact the word "state" or similar should follow the word "further").

It's the really small details that so often can be telling and here I'm fascinated by DC Coe's number being quoted.  This is the link to Annex TVP1 by the way   http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.uk/Publications/Documents/Annex%20TVP%201.pdf

Mr Dingemans is taking Paul Chapman's evidence at the Inquiry and after ascertaining that the two volunteer searchers go back with a police officer to Abingdon to make their statements we have this exchange:

Q. You made your statement and then go off to work?
A. It was mid afternoon by the time we had finished there. I actually had a day off as I was going away to cub camp for the weekend. 

From a Freedom of Information request we now know that DC Coe was logged out of the outer cordon at 11.47 am which is much much later than we were led to believe.

Bearing in mind that Mr Chapman went with DC Coe to the body who more suitable some might ask than DC Coe to "assist" Paul Chapman in producing an accurate statement of his involvement in the events of that morning and after he has had time to return to Abingdon?

With DC Coe being in plain clothes how would Paul Chapman have known his number.  Possibly it was on Coe's ID card and Paul recalled it.  I don't really think that's likely.  If DC Coe took the statement perhaps Mr Coe's number was then visible.  Perhaps Mr Coe added his number to the statement almost as a reflex action; after all Coe was well into his fifties at the time and would be very used to thinking of his number as a means of identification I suggest.

My supposition outlined above about who took the statement is speculation on my part.  I just find it extremely odd that Paul Chapman would have said 'DC2368 COE'