Dr Kelly’s widow describes husband’s ordeal to Hutton inquiry

The widow of defence analyst Dr David Kelly has described how her husband’s despair increased as pressure grew over the Iraq intelligence dossier story.

Janice Kelly said that her husband had felt “totally let down and betrayed” when he learned that he would be named by the Ministry of Defence, angered by the news that his appearance before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee would be televised - and outraged by “junior” official comments made in the press.

Mrs Kelly, who chose to speak to the inquiry via means of a video link, said that in early July her husband felt that it would not be long until he was identified as the source and the press “put two and two together”.

She said that the resulting arrival of the world’s press on July 9 had been a “nightmare”.

The couple had left their Oxfordshire home for Cornwall where Dr Kelly later learned that the Commons committee session would be shown on television. She said that her husband had gone “ballistic”.

The inquiry heard that Dr Kelly had taken a suggestion that he was “chaff” as a personal insult.

Speaking publicly for the first time since her husband’s death on July 17, Mrs Kelly said that he husband has seemed “tired, subdued but not depressed” on that day.

She said that on that day he had been preparing the list of media contacts that had been requested by the MPs. She said that her husband looked “desperate” and had refused to talk at all.

Dr Kelly then left the house in a journey which ended with his death in woods a short distance from the family home. By around 18.30, Mrs Kelly said that she was in and “terrible state” and was doing her best “not to think terrible things”.

She identified the knife that Dr Kelly had apparently used to slit his wrists as one that he had possessed from boyhood.

Mrs Kelly also said that her husband was no “Walter Mitty”, but rather a “shy and retiring man”.

Dr Kelly's daughter is also to give evidence to the inquiry today.

(SP)