Kelly was “heartbroken”, widow tells Hutton
David Kelly seemed “heartbroken” on the day he disappeared apparently to commit suicide, his widow told the Hutton Inquiry this morning.
Jane Kelly gave evidence via audio link at the judicial inquiry into her husband’s death in July today, when she related that he “had shrunk into himself. He looked as if he had shrunk but I had no idea at that stage what he might do later”.
Indeed, on the morning of Dr Kelly’s disappearance (July 17), she said that he seemed “tired, subdued but not depressed. I had no idea. He had never seemed depressed in all of this.”
The morning before he vanished the MoD weapons expert had been in constant telephone contact with his bosses, who demanded to know which other journalists – besides the Today programme’s Andrew Gilligan – he had been in contact with throughout his career.
Mrs Kelly stated that although her husband had drawn up a list, the MoD was insisting on more and more details.
She also reported that she had been shown a picture of the weapon Dr Kelly’s body was found with.
“We were shown a photocopy of a knife, which we recognised he had had for many years. It was a knife he had had, what, from childhood I think, probably from the Boy Scouts”, she told the court.
Mrs Kelly also declared that Dr Kelly had been hurt by MP Andrew Mackinlay – a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee that interviewed him two days before his disappearance – describing him as “chaff”.
She also described the press attention that drove the couple to Cornwall immediately before the FAC hearing as “a nightmare”.
The Kellys escaped from their Oxfordshire home to visit the Eden Project. Mrs Kelly told the Inquiry that “Ihad never known him to be as unhappy as he was then. It was tangible, palpable.”
Finally, Mrs Kelly claimed that Dr Kelly had felt betrayed by the Sunday Times article by journalist Nick Rufford about him.
“He said something like: ‘Thanks, Nick, the MoD will think I have been talking to the press after I had expressly said that I wouldn’t.’ He had been working extremely hard, working his socks off for years. I think he must have felt it was unfair”, she explained, suggesting that the article gave the impression of being a recent interview.
Dr Kelly’s daughter Rachel is shortly to give her evidence to the Inquiry.
