Further thoughts about Paul Weaving

I have recently written about farmer Paul Weaving and the possibility that he saw Dr Kelly on the afternoon he went on his final walk http://drkellysdeath-timeforthetruth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/paul-weaving-and-17th-july.html

In my post I had quoted number 41 in the schedule of responses to issues raised.  This had dealt with the report suggesting that Paul Weaving had also seen Dr Kelly on his walk on the afternoon of the 17th and the fact that Mr Weaving wasn't called to the Inquiry.  The report had been in the Guardian, Scotsman and Observer and in 41 they decided to refer to what the Guardian had to say.  This is very important because the Guardian didn't give direct quotes on this matter whereas the Scotsman certainly did.  Given the choice of those two newspapers for Saturday the 19th the question to be asked is why did they select the paper that didn't directly quote what was said.

A reminder of what Susan Melling said, as reported by the Scotsman:

Susan Melling, a neighbour, said the farmer, Mr Weaver, knocked on their door and her husband joined him in the search party.

"Mr Weaver called around and told us what had happened," she said. "He said that he had seen Dr Kelly on his walk on Thursday afternoon because he was near his farmland at the time.



"He was seen on the other side of the A420 road which runs just north of the village. My husband told me they would be searching all the way to the village of Longworth, which was the nearest village to where he was heading."  

There is confirmation of the search involving Mr Weaving and Mr Melling in number 54 in the Schedule:

Issue
Why was Susan Melling, a neighbour who had spoken to Paul Weaving, not called?
Response
Mr and Mrs Melling were also interviewed by police officers in the days following the death of Dr Kelly.  Mr Melling assisted in the search of Dr Kelly with Mr Weaving, however neither had any further information to assist the investigation.

Mrs Melling's story about the search has been confirmed.  Her remarks about Mr Weaving seeing Dr Kelly are quoted.  My belief is that Mr Weaving changed his story regarding the sighting of Dr Kelly.  Mr Weaving was interviewed by the police on Sunday 20 July so there is no realistic chance of his failing to recall the facts over that 3 day period.  He was seen by the police on the day immediately following the newspaper articles and some will see that as suspicious.

The short quotation from Mr Weaving's police witness statement is in fact ambiguous, and possibly deliberately so: Apart from the man walking his dog as previously described, I saw nobody else whilst there.  This wording might be reasonably viewed as referring to Mr Weaving's observations when he was at one location only: Harrowdown Hill.  In that case Dr Kelly might readily have been spotted by Mr Weaving earlier that afternoon just north of the A420 but south of Longworth and Harrowdown, prior to Mr Weaving going on up to the Hill to supervise the grass cutting.

In summary:

• The Attorney General in his Schedule selected the paper that didn't quote Mrs Melling rather than the one that did.
• The quotation of Mrs Melling in the Scotsman is clear and unambiguous as to Mr Weaving having seen Dr Kelly.
• Ruth Absalom has Dr Kelly heading in the wrong direction for Harrowdown Hill.  Hutton failed to investigate further.
• The official narrative doesn't record any other witnesses subsequently seeing Dr Kelly.
• Neither the person cutting the grass at Harrowdown Hill nor Mr Weaving see Dr Kelly at that location or approaching it.
• Neither Mr Weaving, Mr Melling nor Mrs Welling are called to the Inquiry, even though they knew Dr Kelly and the two men had been involved in searching for him. 

Nobody saw Dr Kelly at Harrowdown Hill

We are told in the official narrative that the dead body of Dr Kelly was discovered by search dog "Brock" in the wood that surmounts Harrowdown Hill.  If Dr Kelly had decided to commit suicide as the authorities would have us believe then fairly evidently he would have walked to Harrowdown Hill and then into the wood.  A very odd website called "Southend Leaks" has come up with a different scenario though in which they maintain that Dr Kelly killed himself elsewhere and his body was then moved to the wood which would have necessitated the recreation of the suicide as it were.  There are various reasons why "Southend Leaks" doesn't ring true which I won't discuss now.

The case for Dr Kelly walking up to Harrowdown Hill and into the wood would be bolstered if there was evidence of him being sighted after he had been in conversation with Ruth Absalom.  In a comment on the last post but one from me (about Paul Weaving) Frank had pointed out that there had been no less than six witnesses that he was aware of who, during the course of the afternoon and evening of the 17th July, might have been expected to have spotted Dr Kelly ...  if not all at least some of them.  These were two farmers, an employee of one of them, a dog walker, a horse rider and a badger watcher.  None of these did.  It seems that the alleged sighting of David Kelly by Mr Weaving was before Dr Kelly met Ms Absalom.

It has been stated that there was a thorough investigation of possible witnesses to the routes that Dr Kelly would have taken.  Part of number 46 in the schedule of responses to issues raised deals with this http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.uk/Publications/Documents/Schedule%20of%20responses%20to%20issues%20raised.pdf
This is the relevant two paragraphs in the response:

In the days following the discovery of Dr Kelly's body a house-to-house operation was conducted in Southmoor, Longworth and the routes between the two villages.  This included any "premise which overlooked the possible routes taken".  In total 167 premises were identified and visited.  This was a large operation and took some weeks to complete.

A checkpoint was established on the public footpaths that cross Harrowdown Hill woods in an effort to identify potential witnesses to the movements of the deceased.

I think that there are two alternative reasons for this particular police operation: firstly, that this was a very thorough investigation and no stone was being left unturned.  The second possibility was that an element of Thames Valley Police knew that Dr Kelly hadn't walked to Harrowdown Hill and so the house-to-house operation was a piece of elaborate window dressing.

Whatever viewpoint one takes the police failed to muster a single witness to say they had seen Dr Kelly.  There is thus no evidence that he had voluntarily entered the wood where he was found.