Friday 11 May 2012

Mrs Kelly's dubious testimony (5)

In her evidence at the Hutton Inquiry Mrs Kelly is clear that she and her husband left their home on the evening of 9th July, stayed the night in a hotel at Weston-Super-Mare, drove from WSM to Cornwall on the morning of the 10th to then stay in that county.  This timing though is at odds with the testimony given by family friend Professor Roger Avery who also was questioned (by video link from the US) on 1 September 2003.

Roger Avery discusses with Mr Dingemans a phone call he had with Dr Kelly:

Q. And what had prompted the last phone call?
A. The last phone call -- actually there were two of them -- was somewhat unusual in that I, on Thursday -- I will just have to check the date to make sure I have the correct date -- Thursday 10th. Thursday 10th July, as I was about to leave my office at about 5.15 I received a phone call from the press telling me that Dr Kelly was involved in the current dispute that was going on between the BBC and the British Government over the dossier and could I give them his telephone number.  Of course I did not do that.
Q. Which press was this, the American press or the English press?
A. No, this was the English press -- a reporter for The Times.
Q. And you did not hand over his phone number?
A. No, I did not, but I did immediately call Dr Kelly on his mobile phone. I vaguely remembered that he told me he was hoping to go back to Iraq. So when he answered I said, "Where are you?" thinking he would say, "In Iraq", and he said, "I am at Weston-Super-Mare". Then I asked what he was doing in Weston-Super-Mare and he told me that he had had a phone call telling him he
should leave home within a few minutes because the press were about to descend on him; and so he and his wife, Janice, had actually done that.


To give an idea of the time difference between the UK and that part of the US Avery had also stated:  'I am an administrator and scientist at Virginia Tech University in the United States.'

Roger Avery actually checks to ensure that he has the right date and states that it was 10th July, in other words 24 hours later than that given by Mrs Kelly.

It was only a few hours earlier on the 1st September that Mrs Kelly had told the Inquiry that it was on the 9th that they went to Weston-Super-Mare.  As ever Hutton failed to resolve a glaring discrepancy between the accounts of two witnesses. 

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