Search timeline Friday 18 July 2003 (up to 9.20)

Following the format I have previously adopted I should be writing individual entries looking at the evidence at Hutton provided by PCs Franklin and Sawyer and by the ambulance crew Vanessa Hunt and David Bartlett.  It will be easier now though I believe to deal with certain themes that might relate to all of them and in some instances to the content of earlier witness statements which I have already sketched.  I want to try and sort out the witness evidence concerning timings from early on Friday 18th July up to the point Dr Kelly was officially pronounced dead.  As we shall see there are one or two anomalies in reported times but I'm still hopeful that some sort of sensible timeline can be deduced for those few hours.

Looking at the evidence from Assistant Chief Constable Michael Page we see that Mr Dingemans asks him about the time that he heard about the two searchers having found Dr Kelly's body to which the ACC replies: "I think within seconds of the information coming in to us but the time I have is that it was 9.20."  This is what I would call the pivotal time in as much that I believe that the timings of events just before and just after have to fit in with this.  I also think of 10.07 (47 minutes later) as the "end time" for this part of the drama because this is the declared time we are told that the ambulance crew confirmed that Dr Kelly was dead.

A quick comment about the time of 10.07.  The ambulance crew explained that they had connected a heart monitor to Dr Kelly and that the flat lines on the print out they obtained proved that life was extinct.  The print out states the time but we are told this is not normally correct being typically an hour out and so the medics add the correct time via looking at their watches (perhaps it has to be corrected for BST).  After this process was completed they handed these strips to the police.  At the Inquiry the two ambulance crew were unable to say exactly what this time was and so far as I can see it was two policemen who volunteered this information.  One of these was PC Franklin and the other, as I had mentioned previously, was DC Coe.  At one stage in his questioning DC Coe looked at his notebook and confirmed the 10.07 timing so whether at Harrowdown Hill or perhaps back in the office had seen the strips and recorded the time one assumes.

Paul Chapman states that he "got an official page soon after 5 o'clock".  The ACC described how he had arranged a meeting of key individuals to arrange resourcing for what he anticipated would be more widespread searching.  Although scheduled for 5 am at Abingdon police station Mr Page thought the meeting started at about 5.15 am.  Bearing in mind that Paul is more likely to have been paged by his search manager than the police my feeling is that the decision to call out the search volunteers may well have been enacted some time prior to Mr Page's 5.15 meeting.  Paul then goes on to say he had a further text message (we don't know the time) confirming the call out to which he replied to say he was available.  For the next piece of timing it's over to Louise Holmes who says she arrived at Abingdon police station "around quarter past/half past seven".  Back to Paul now who states that after they had been briefed the journey out to the search area (Louise driving) took "10 or 15 minutes."  Switching to Louise for the next time check we have her saying, about the time they arrived at the search area "It was about 8 o'clock".

The time period from arriving at the start of the search area to the point when the discovery of the body is notified is evidently about 1 hour and 20 minutes which might appear to be greater than expected.  Let's break things down a bit.  Paul talks about it being about a ten minute walk back down to the car when the woods are left - looking at the map I would say the distance is approximately half a mile which ties in with Paul's ten minute walk.  It is not a dissimilar distance from the woods to the River Thames with the slight difference that the gradient between the river and Harrowdown Hill is somewhat steeper.  Looking at Google Earth it is apparent that there is a gate on the left hand side of the track just short of where the wood starts.  It would seem that the searchers went through this gate because they next describe being in the field searching the southern perimeter of the wood.  Having drawn a blank they retraced their steps to the main path before actually getting into the wood proper.  They could only search so far north in the wood because of a barbed wire fence.  The search in this southern part of the wood was evidently slow going because Paul says  "There were no paths or anything so we were having to climb across trees and go round all the bushes and things." 

It was after searching the southern part of the wood that they decided to eliminate the area down to the Thames.  I would suggest it would have been something like 10 minutes to the river, 10 minutes back and say nearly 5 minutes finding the boat people and talking to them.

As we know the searchers went back up the hill from the Thames to do the northern sector of the wood.  They followed the same procedure as before, examining the outside perimeter of the wood first and Paul, in answer to a question, guesses that this bit of the search took about ten or fifteen minutes.  Again drawing a blank they revert to the main path and enter into the northern sector from the east.  Once in the wood again it is evident from what Paul says that it is about 5 minutes later that Brock discovers Dr Kelly.

There are two or three minutes lost now because Paul was unable to contact his control and had to make a 999 call instead with Abingdon police station calling him back.  I've gone into a lot of detail I know but I wanted to demonstrate how all this search time could accumulate.  This exercise also helps us to try and get some sort of fix as to the time the boat people were seen.  My own estimate of that would be about 8.40 to 8.45.      
 

Some images of the Harrowdown Hill area

They say "a picture is worth a thousand words". In the case of this blog I'm pleased to say that I've found a number of pictures that well illustrate the route taken by searchers Louise Holmes and Paul Chapman and search dog Brock on the 18 July 2003 when they were looking for Dr David Kelly. Although I was well aware of this website for some reason I hadn't thought about its use to illustrate my blog and it took a reference to it by Felix who has been adding regular comments to my entries for me to realise its potential here. So thank you Felix for flagging it up! The Geograph website is superb, not only are they endeavouring to provide representative photographs of every one kilometre square in the British Isles but for each picture there is a location map.

Now, as luck would have it, there are a number of photos that are useful here and, if like me, you have no reason to be familiar with the Harrowdown Hill area, they are a huge asset. What I am doing is adding a few relevant comments beneath each picture. By clicking on the title below each one you go to the Geograph site and get the full size view and an extract of the relevant ordnance survey map amongst other information. I have certainly found all this incredibly useful.

Track, to Harrowdown Hill

© Copyright Roger Cornfoot and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

This is the lower end of the track that the searchers started walking, Louise having parked her car a short distance away. Following the discovery of Dr Kelly's body police vehicles drove up this track I assume because there are media photos showing the police presence in a field adjoining the wood on Harrowdown Hill. However there is a parallel road or track from Longworth and just to the west of this one. This serves Thames-Side Farm and, depending on field access possibilities, might have been a better option for the police, rather than this track.
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The lane over Harrowdown Hill

© Copyright Tim Kirby and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

A little further up the lane now, whereas in the first photo the right hand side was fairly open, the track here is far more enclosed. Although Louise and Paul searched the south part of the wood on Harrowdown Hill next I'll move on now to the south bank of the River Thames.
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Gate by the sign

© Copyright Bill Nicholls and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The searchers would have entered this scene from the centre right of the picture. It was about here that Brock drew their attention to the presence of people on a boat. The dense vegetation along the river bank is noticeable, but as this is a picture taken in August the flora is a little more profuse than it would have been at the time of the search.
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Passing on the bend

© Copyright Bill Nicholls and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Very close in location to the previous picture this photo clearly demonstrates two very different boats on the Thames. Unfortunately the Hutton evidence doesn't give us any real clues as to the nature of the boat that the searchers came across. Three or four people on board is as much as we know about it and that doesn't help a lot!
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River Thames near Thames-Side Farm

© Copyright Pierre Terre and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Now a view looking up the river. Thames-Side Farm is nearby on the south bank. Did the police ask the farmer if he had heard anything?
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Harrowdown Hill

© Copyright Andrew Smith and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

This is the view of the Hill the searchers would have had as they trekked towards it from the river.
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Wood, on Harrowdown Hill

© Copyright Roger Cornfoot and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

This is an image of the inside of the wood on Harrowdown Hill. There is a mixture of woodland types. some open and grassy as depicted here whereas other areas are almost impenetrable.
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Woodland path, on Harrowdown Hill

© Copyright Roger Cornfoot and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The remarks I added to the previous photo can also be applied here.
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The Bridleway to Longworth

© Copyright Tim Kirby and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

I'm just adding this as a final photo because it shows how dominant Harrowdown Hill is in the landscape. If you were to follow the bridleway signposted for about half a mile then you would arrive back at the point Louise parked her car.
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Google Earth is another free source of information well worth having. The wood on top of Harrowdown Hill is in stark contrast to most of the surrounding area in which there are few trees. looking at the Google Earth image of the Hill it would seem that the wood is divided into three approximately equal parts and one can just about make out the barbed wire fences tracking west to east and separating them. It is the presence of these fences that led Louise and Paul to their decision to include the search area to the River Thames before going into the northern part of the wood.

Searchers Louise Holmes and Paul Chapman (2)

In my last post I briefly related the part volunteer searchers Louise Holmes and Paul Chapman played in the search for Dr David Kelly (DK) up until the point that search dog Brock discovered his body. What happened next? Just before looking at this I'll just mention a question Louise was asked concerning how far into the wood they had gone before reaching DK's body. Her inquisitor (Mr Knox) asked if it was a mile or less than that, she replied "No, probably only about 200 metres". Mr Knox was quite wrong to even indicate a distance in my opinion, let alone one which he must have known was quite ludicrous. In the context of suggesting a mile the answer from Louise of 200 metres in a comparative sense might have appeared sensible. Knox should not have suggested any distance, all right it's a minor point I know. I wonder if Louise really meant 200 feet - this would tie in with other people talking about 60 or 70 metres.

Mr Knox goes on to ask Louise what she saw. She observed "a body slumped against the bottom of a tree". A little later that is reinforced by the words "He was at the base of the tree with almost his head and his shoulders just slumped back against the tree". For the avoidance of any doubt you can see her being interviewed on YouTube: input Anthrax War 2/7 and it's about 6.30 in from the start; in this clip she again confirms the position of the body. (More sensible I suppose if I gave the link: it's here)

Back to Hutton and Mr Knox asks her about the position of DK's arms and legs. Significantly, in view of later testimonies, she describes his right arm as being to the side of him. She states that she moved closer to the body to see whether there was any first aid she needed to administer. Louise gets to within a few feet of him and is satisfied in her own mind that he is dead and therefore there is nothing she can do to help him. Mr Knox specifically asked her if she went up to the body itself and felt his pulse. Her reply was "I did not touch it, no". My internet chum had directed me to a forum which included discussion about whether DK's body had been moved: somebody suggested that Louise could have pulled the body away from the tree to check for signs of life but her evidence would suggest that she merely got close to DK and made a judgement that he was dead. I can't really imagine a reason why she would be untruthful about all this - nobody would have condemned her if she had touched the body to check for signs of life surely and a suggestion that she would have pulled the body clear of the tree beggars belief.

DK's watch, a knife and a water bottle were all found close to the body; it is surprising is it not that Louise didn't notice them or, at least, made no reference to them at the Inquiry - assuming of course that they were there at that time.

I will be looking at Paul's evidence in my next post.

Searchers Louise Holmes and Paul Chapman (1)

The searchers who found the body of Dr David Kelly (DK) were Louise Holmes and Paul Chapman. Perhaps more precisely it was Louise's search dog Brock, a border collie / Australian shepherd cross. Both the searchers were volunteers for the SEBEV Search and Rescue Charity (their website is here). As to their regular employment Louise worked for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and Paul worked for Prudential at Reading. (NOTE: I am using the past tense of course because I am referring to their occupations at the time they gave evidence to Hutton. They may or may not have these occupations now).

Although in the early morning of 18th July 2003 Abingdon Police Station was gearing up for a number of officers to commence searching for DK it seems that Louise and Paul were being briefed separately from everybody else. Louise states that the briefing was done by a policeman and SEBEV's Control Manager, Neil Knight. They were tasked to search Harrowdown Hill and the continuation of the track that bounds the east side of the wood on the hill the short distance further north to the River Thames. After driving the eight or so miles from Abingdon they arrived at the start of the Search area at about 8 am.

Having parked the car the two of them and Brock searched the track up to Harrowdown Hill, then the southern half of the wood that adorns the Hill before coming out of the wood. Apparently there was a barbed wire fence crossing the middle of the wood which inhibited progress into the northern sector. Having retraced their steps from the southern part of the wood they made the decision to continue with the relatively short walk north to the bank of the River Thames. Although an unfrequented part of the river the dog scented some people there and in fact the searchers came across a boat moored at that particular point. The searchers explained what they were doing and the boat people stated that they had seen a helicopter the previous night.

There is now a slight discrepancy: Louise states that other than the helicopter they had not seen anybody or anything. However Paul, in his evidence to Hutton, says that they had also "seen some police officers at some point previously". I think the variation between the accounts is not a problem. It should be remembered that Louise was working with Brock and it would be understandable if a comment by the boat people passed her by, in fact she says she had a game with him as a reward for finding the people on the boat; my feeling is just that the additional information given to Hutton by Paul had just not been noticed by her.

The searchers now retraced their steps to Harrowdown Hill, went round the northern boundary and then got into the northern part of the wood from the track on the eastern side. The dog was working ahead of them with Paul about five metres behind Louise. Louise recalls at the Inquiry that Brock ran back to her barking - he had found Dr David Kelly.