Kelly coroner may examine unseen evidence

A coroner said today he was ready to examine statements from witnesses who withheld their evidence from the Hutton Inquiry.

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner said he would ask Thames Valley Police to hand over the missing material.

He will then consider Lord Hutton’s report and decide within the next month whether to hold a full inquest into Dr David Kelly’s death.

A number of witnesses took advantage of an option not to have their statements passed to Lord Hutton.

The force interviewed some 500 people and took 300 witness statements during the investigation, passing on fewer than 70 they deemed relevant.

“I shall probably have a look through it, the extra material,” Mr Gardiner told PA News.

“The police will make available whatever I ask for.”

The UK coroner’s inquest was adjourned under Britain's Section 17a of the 1988 Coroners Act, which allowed Lord Hutton’s inquiry to act as an inquest.

Mr Gardiner added: “The situation is quite simple, I can’t make any decision for 28 days for legal reasons.

“After that I hope to see whether I think there are any exceptional reasons for reopening the inquest.

“In that intervening month I will be looking at Lord Hutton’s report and any other documents.”

Mr Gardiner said he was receiving an “extensive” amount of mail from various sources about Dr Kelly’s death and felt obliged to read it all.

He is also expected to look at fresh information about Dr Kelly’s troubled childhood including the collapse of his parents’ marriage.

One of the individuals believed to have withheld her statement was Mai Pederson, the American linguist who introduced Dr Kelly to the Baha’I faith.

But the force’s assistant chief constable, Michael Page, told Lord Hutton that Ms Pederson’s statement contained nothing of relevance.

Because the Hutton Inquiry was a judicial inquiry and not a coroner’s inquest it did not have the power to compel witnesses to allow their statements to go forward.