General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street,
Manchester
M3 3AW
12 May 2012
My ref: Dr Richard Shepherd BSc MB BS FRCPath FFFLM Consultant forensic pathologist: The unnatural death of Dr David Kelly 17/18 July 2003
Dear GMC,
Dr Richard Shepherd provided a report dated 16 March 2011 at the request of the Attorney General, (AG) Mr Dominic Grieve QC.
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.uk/Publications/Documents/Forensic%20medical%20report%20by%20Dr%20Shepherd%2016%20March%202011.pdf
The purpose of this supposedly independent report was to examine the criticisms made by a group, of which I am but one member, to do with the performance of Dr Nicholas Hunt, forensic pathologist, in the examination of the unnatural death of Dr David Kelly MSc CMG. The AG had received a Memorial in October 2010, and an Addendum in February 2011 from our solicitors, Leigh Day & Co. We were pleading for the AG to facilitate an inquest, there having been no inquest, by approaching the High Court using S:13 of the 1988 Coroner's Act. Dr Shepherd's report also dealt with other complaints from outside our group.
The unnatural death of Dr David Kelly: For the attention of the Attorney General
Dear Mr McGinty,
I am writing to the Attorney General as an individual whilst Ms Frances Swaine of Leigh Day & Co assembles the many omissions, contradictions, untruths etc that are of a general nature, rather than being specifically medical or forensic. Those have been dealt with in large part by the memorial.
Read more: The unnatural death of Dr David Kelly: For the attention of the Attorney General
I write these two pages in case my points might help towards a judicial review of Mr Grieve's negative response to our plea for an inquest. These points do, I think, concern the process in his response rather than his rationale.
The death of Dr Kelly, either by his own hand or by another's, was all about the Iraq war. That cannot be disputed. I note:-
Fitness to Practise Panel
Session beginning 5 September 2005 to 9 September 2005
Reconvened on 18 November 2005, 27 March 2006, 15-16 and 18 – 19 January 2007, 19 February 2007
St James’s Building, 79 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6FQ
Dr Kenneth SHORROCK
Registration number: 2428013
This case has been considered by a Fitness to Practise Panel applying the General Medical Council’s Preliminary Proceedings Committee and Professional Conduct Committee (Procedure Rules) 1988.
Mr Taylor:
At all relevant times Dr Shorrock was a registered medical practitioner employed as a Consultant Pathologist at the Royal Halifax Hospital.
On 31 January 2000, on the instruction of Her Majesty’s Coroner, Dr Shorrock undertook a post-mortem examination of Gladys Allen at Dewsbury and District Hospital. Mrs Allen had died on 28 January 2000 shortly after undergoing the operation of left nephrectomy (removal of the left kidney), which had been performed by Mr Syed, locum consultant urologist. The indication for the operation was cancer of the kidney.
The forensic pathology: The subversion of due process continues. Part three
Andrew Watt ended his article with the post-mortem examination being carried out by Dr Nicholas Hunt on the evening the body was found 18 July 2003. It was the penetrating smell of Lysol, lights and stainless steel in the mortuary of the John Radcliffe Infirmary Oxford, as well as the remains of a fit husband and father. Nine police officers were in attendance, the most senior being Detective Chief Inspector Alan Young who was in charge of the investigation. He was at the scene on Harrowdown Hill where the unidentified body was found by Louise Holmes. In spite of his lead position in the inquiry into a missing person, and then a suspicious death, he was neither called to the Hutton Inquiry which started sitting 13 days later, nor did he submit a statement to it (1). There is no obvious explanation for the presence of nine police officers at this very morbid autopsy given that the police had sprayed the word 'suicide' about earlier that day. The size of the squad would surely have fitted better if murder was foremost in the minds of the investigating authorities.