Nearly a third (30%) of Brits believes that weapons expert Dr. David Kelly was ‘murdered’, in contrast to a poll taken at the time of his death in 2003, in which only 11% of the public believed this to be the case.
This comes as a group of experts have renewed calls for a formal inquest into the death. At the time, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair commissioned Lord Hutton to conduct an investigation, which eventually decided that Kelly had died through suicide.
However, the group of experts consulted during the initial inquest, including a former coroner, a former deputy coroner and a professor of intensive care medicine, believes that this verdict is medically unsound. It was agreed at the time that Dr. Kelly died of blood loss after allegedly slashing his wrists; but the experts argue that it would not normally result in death.
Accordingly, more than half (55%) of the British public thinks that there should be a fresh inquest into Kelly’s death, while less than a quarter (23%) of the public does not think a fresh inquest is needed.
This week, only 22% of the public think that he was ‘driven to commit suicide by the impossible pressure’ he was facing at the time of his death, compared to over half of Brits (51%) believing this to be the case in 2003. As well as more people thinking he was murdered, even more are now undecided on what best explains Dr. Kelly’s death, with a significant 38% saying they ‘don’t know’. In 2003, only 14% chose this option.
