Kelly, David Christopher (1944–2003)

English microbiologist and expert on biological weapons. He came to public attention in July 2003, after the British government named him as a possible Ministry of Defence source for a BBC report, published in May 2003, which alleged that the prime minister's office had ‘sexed up’ (misrepresented to serve its own political ends) a September 2002 dossier on Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction, against the wishes of the intelligence service. Kelly was called to give evidence before the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on 15 July, at which time he said he did not believe he was the main source. On 17 July he committed suicide, which led to the setting up of the Hutton inquiry (see Hutton report) to examine the events surrounding his death.

Kelly studied at Birmingham, Warwick, and Oxford universities, obtaining a doctorate in microbiology. Highly regarded within his field, he became the chief scientific officer and senior adviser to the Proliferation and Arms Control Secretariat of the Ministry of Defence and the Non-proliferation Department of the Foreign Office. He led all the visits and inspections of Russian biological warfare facilities from 1991 to 1994, and then became senior adviser on biological warfare for the United Nations (UN) in Iraq 1994–99, visiting Iraq many times.