The Death of David Kelly - Andrew Gilligan parrotting a mistake by Nicholas Hunt

To those who've studied the Hutton Inquiry web site in detail, the recent article by Andrew Gilligan, David Kelly: case closed, shows how easy it is for a careless journalist to parrot an error as if it's fact.

Gilligan uncritically states this, quoting from Nicholas Hunt's postmortem report,

"There was heavy bloodstaining over the left arm." There was blood on the front right side of his shirt beneath the left hand, the palm of which was bloodstained.

Gilligan fails to notice that elsewhere in Nicholas Hunt's report the left arm is said to be in this position, "His left, upper arm was in a line with the shoulder, with his elbow flexed and his left hand pointing towards his feet".

So, taken at face value, David Kelly has two left hands.

I mention it simply to demonstrate how poor some journalists can be at spotting glaring mistakes in something they quote.

If Andrew Gilligan can't spot such simple mistakes in the postmortem report, it becomes obvious why the title of his article, David Kelly: case closed, expresses an erroroneous conclusion.