Was Dr Kelly murdered?

Medical experts today raised the possibility that weapons expert David Kelly did not kill himself.

Three senior specialists said they could not accept the evidence of how Dr Kelly died presented to the Hutton Inquiry.

They believe that the cause of death as told to the inquiry was "improbable" and called for a full inquest, raising the theory that Dr Kelly was murdered.

Their dramatic intervention comes the day before publication of Lord Hutton's report into the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly's death.

And at the weekend one of Dr Kelly's closest friends said she did not believe he had committed suicide and claimed he had received death threats.

Dr Kelly was found dead near his Oxfordshire home last July after being named as the source of a BBC report claiming the Government "sexed up" a dossier on the threat from Iraq.

The inquiry was told that he bled to death after cutting his wrist. There was evidence that he had also taken painkillers.

But in a letter to The Guardian the specialistsdetailed flaws in the official explanation given by a Home Office pathologist.

The medical experts told the Evening Standard today that they were not accusing anyone of murder but added: "The picture is not a happy one."

Today Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner, who is considering holding a full inquest into his death, revealed he had received "numerous" letters questioning the account given to the inquiry.

The group of specialists, who include a trauma consultant and an anaesthetist, said they believe Dr Kelly could not have died as a result of cutting his wrist and taking an overdose of painkillers.

Speaking on behalf of a number of medics, consultant surgeon David Halpin said: "There are all sorts of evidence that are most unsatisfactory.

"The picture is not a happy one. We would like this inquest reopened, so that in this very important case, no stone is left unturned."

During the Hutton Inquiry forensic pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt concluded that the scientist bled to death from a selfinflicted wound to his left wrist.

Dr Halpin said today: "As specialist medical professionals, we do not consider the evidence given at the Hutton Inquiry has demonstrated that Dr Kelly committed suicide.

"We find it difficult to accept that a cut, such as the one described, could result in death. It is very unlikely that this injury would have been fatal."

He added: "Because the case was so high profile, I imagined that the autopsy and inquest would be carried out to the highest standard that our state could muster.

"But the more I thought about it, the less certain I became that he could have died from a cut to the left wrist."

Dr Kelly's body was found slumped by a tree in woods near his home.

Lying next to him were the Scout knife he had had since he was a boy, his watch, his flat cap, his glasses, a container of his wife's painkillers and a bottle of water.

Dr Hunt told the inquiry that the only artery involved - the ulnar artery - had been completely sliced through.

But Dr Halpin, whose views are supported by diagnostic radiologist Stephen Frost, and Searle Sennet, a specialist in anaesthesiology, said: "Arteries in the wrist are of matchstick thickness and severing them does not lead to life-threatening blood loss.

"When the artery is completely transected, as apparently happened in this case, it retracts and the blood begins to clot. This limits the blood loss."

Today Mr Gardiner told the Standard he has received "numerous" letters questioning the official version of Dr Kelly's death.

"This is just one of several I have received to this effect," he said. "I hope to take any views into account on this matter."

Mr Gardiner formally handed over the powers of his inquest to Lord Hutton after the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, used a little-known law to order that it be combined with the public inquiry.

"I expect to have a hearing in March at which I will make my ruling," said Mr Gardiner today. The Hutton Inquiry had itself heard dramatic evidence that Dr Kelly, 59, had forecast his own death.

He told a diplomat: "I will probably be found dead in the woods."

In the days before he died, he told one friend: "Many dark actors are playing games."

This weekend a friend of Dr Kelly's, Mai Pederson, broke her silence to say that she believed the weapons expert had been killed.

She told the Mail on Sunday: "I told police that the fact he was found dead in the woods to me was not surprising.

"The fact they said he committed suicide was. His job was dangerous. He knew it could cost him his life. He got death threats."

But her statement had not been passed to the Hutton Inquiry and key medical evidence which would normally be made public at an inquest was marked as "private".