The blood: PCs Franklin and Sawyer have their say

Leading the ambulance team to the scene of the body were PC Franklin and PC Sawyer.  At the Hutton Inquiry on 2 September Franklin was questioned by Mr Dingemans, then it was Sawyer's turn with his evidence taken by Mr Knox.

These are the extracts of their testimonies relating to the blood that they saw:

PC Franklin
Q. Did you see any signs of injury on the body?
A. There was a fair amount of blood to the left wrist area and on the left hand, and a fair amount of blood sort of puddled around.
Q. On the ground?
A. On the ground, yes.
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Q. And what did the knife look like?
A. The blade was open. It was some sort of lock knife. I cannot be that precise. I believe it had a curved -- slight curve to the blade. The blade was maybe 3 to 4 inches long.
Q. Was there anything on the blade?
A. Blood.

PC Sawyer

Q. Before the paramedics approached Dr Kelly's body, can you remember what position it was in?
A. Lying on its back with its head at the base of a tree, a large tree. The head was tilted to the left. The right arm was by the side. The left arm was palm down. There was a large amount of blood on the back of the left arm. There was a watch and a curved knife by that wrist.

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Q. What injuries did you see on the body itself?
A. I could not see any actual injuries because the injuries, I believe, were hidden by the wrist being turned down. But there was a large amount of blood there, and also from the mouth, the corner of -- the right-hand corner of the mouth to the ear there was a dark stain where I took it that Dr Kelly had vomited and it had run down the side of his face.
Q. What about on his face, were there any marks or stains on his clothes?
A. His jeans -- he was wearing jeans, they were pulled up slightly, exposing the lower half of his leg or his ankle. It looked as if he had slid down and his trousers had ridden up. I believe on the right-hand knee there was a patch of what I took to be blood, but I do not know what it was, but it had the appearance of blood.
Q. Did he still have his jacket on?
A. Yes.
Q. Were there any marks on the jacket, as far as you could see?
A. No, only the blood from his wrist.

In Annex TVP 3 on the Attorney General's website there are short extracts from the witness statements of these two police constables http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.uk/Publications/Documents/Annex%20TVP%203.pdf  No mention is made of blood in either of them.

Both Franklin and Sawyer get logged out of the scene for brief periods which I will detail later but other than that they are at Harrowdown Hill until after the hearse leaves with Dr Kelly's body.  If any blood was added to the scene after the departure of the ambulance team then they may have been aware of the fact.

Franklin's description of 'blood sort of puddled around' is very unsatisfactory.  Neither Dingemans nor Hutton sought to clarify what he said.  Coe and the paramedics failed to see the blood puddles; later I shall show that one of these, the pool of blood under the knife, would have been created after the paramedics left the scene.

PC Sawyer also sees the blood, or what he assumes to be blood, on the right-hand knee but that is all he observes on the clothing.