Coroner wants new Kelly probe

2004-01-22 10:35

London - A coroner is ready to launch a fresh inquest into the suicide of David Kelly, the weapons expert at the centre of claims that the British government had "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq, The Times said on Thursday.

A judicial inquiry, headed by senior judge Lord Hutton, is set to report potentially explosive findings on Kelly's death in under a week, but Nicholas Gardiner, the Oxfordshire coroner, believes the inquiry was unable to examine all the evidence, The Times said.

At least five witnesses refused to release their statements and police only handed Hutton 70 of the 300 witness statements they took during their inquiries, the newspaper said.

I ought to see them

"What their motives might be for not handing over their statements I have no idea but I think I ought to see them," Gardiner told The Times.

Gardiner intends to meet senior police officers this week to demand access to the documents unseen by Hutton, the newspaper said.

Kelly's body was found in woodland near his Oxfordshire home, west of London, in July, just days after he was exposed as the source of a BBC report which alleged that the British government had "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq and its reported weapons of mass destruction.

His death hurled British Prime Minister Tony Blair - who, as the staunchest international ally of US President George W. Bush, led a sceptical Britain into the Iraq war - into his worst crisis since he moved into Downing Street in May 1997.

- AFP