Kelly photo 'mystery' cleared up

Torin Douglas BBC media correspondent

After days of remarkable revelations and headline-grabbing quotes from cabinet ministers, top civil servants, the BBC and Dr Kelly's family, Tuesday's line-up looked less promising.

Police, paramedics, and a neighbour were expected to describe the scientist's last hours and how his body was found, while his local GP, a psychiatrist and a representative of the Ba'hai faith would shed light on his health and state of mind.

But shortly after lunch came another of those "bombshell" moments. It soon proved less significant than it first appeared, but for a while all the talk was of a mysterious photograph discovered in Dr Kelly's study.

There'd been a tantalising reference to it before lunch, when PC Martyn Sawyer, who'd led the search of the scientist's house, revealed that various documents had been taken away including a photograph "that excited some interest".

Conspiracy theories

He'd not been asked any more and left the witness stand.

Immediately after lunch, PC Sawyer was recalled, to explain that the photograph showed Dr Kelly with another person standing in front of the parliament building in Moscow.

Two policemen who'd found it had thought the other man bore a remarkable resemblance to the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, though another PC thought the opposite. The photograph had been taken in August 1993.

PC Sawyer was asked for his opinion. "I could form no view either way," he told Lord Hutton. And that of the police force as a whole? "The photograph has been retained as an exhibit and is being made available to the inquiry tomorrow."

All sorts of conspiracy theories were unleashed. Moscow, Gilligan, Kelly - it all seemed too good to be true. And within the hour the BBC was letting it be known that Gilligan had never been to Moscow and that in 1993 he had been a student.

But the photograph is on its way to the inquiry and will no doubt be given due scrutiny tomorrow.

He'd seemed distressed by the questions from MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee and had felt belittled by them - a factor which the psychiatrist said had been known to contribute to some suicides

The episode raised memories of an earlier Hutton bombshell, from a diplomat in Geneva, who had described how Dr Kelly had told him that if war were declared on Iraq he'd probably be "found dead in the woods".

The inquiry had been told this conversation had taken place in February this year. Yet it emerged this week, in evidence from Dr Kelly's daughter Rachel, that the Geneva meeting had taken place the previous February, 2002.

The diplomat's story - which had produced splash headlines - was today dismissed by a psychiatrist as "pure coincidence".

Professor Keith Hawton, director of the Centre for Suicide Research, said: "I don't think it is relevant to understanding Dr Kelly's death."

And by the end of the day it was Professor Hawton's own evidence that was the main topic of conversation.

He said it was "well nigh certain" Dr Kelly had committed suicide, not just because of the cut to his wrist, and the knife found nearby, but because he'd taken about 30 Coproxamol tablets.

Professor Hawton said that if the scientist had been forced to do that by a third party, there would have been signs of a struggle.

Disciplinary measures

Commenting on Dr Kelly's state of mind, Professor Hawton said he'd obviously been under great, and growing, stress.

He'd seemed distressed by the questions from MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee and had felt belittled by them - a factor which the psychiatrist said had been known to contribute to some suicides.

They'd then asked further written questions about his contacts with journalists.

Professor Hawton said Mrs Kelly had told him her husband's distress had visibly escalated on the day he'd disappeared.

An inspection of his e-mails had shown he'd been telling friends that morning that he hoped the row would soon blow over and he'd be able to go back to Baghdad and get on with his real work.

Far from blowing over, Dr Kelly's difficulties were getting worse and that day he'd begun to realise it

But another e-mail told him four new parliamentary questions had been tabled about his contacts with journalists, including one asking the defence secretary what disciplinary measures he was going to take against Dr Kelly.

The scientist had already been warned he might face further action. The police would later find an unopened letter in his briefcase, spelling out that threat.

Far from blowing over, Dr Kelly's difficulties were getting worse and that day he'd begun to realise it.