CAMPAIGNERS have renewed their calls for a new inquest into the death of inspector Dr David Kelly.

Dr Kelly, of Southmoor, near Abingdon, was found dead in 2003 after being named as the source for a BBC report claiming the Government’s case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had been exaggerated.

The original inquest into Dr Kelly’s death at Harrowdown Hill in July 2003 was opened and adjourned, and the then-Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer ordered Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner to adjourn it indefinitely, saying the Hutton Inquiry would fulfil its function instead.

The inquiry said Dr Kelly’s death was suicide.

Gerrard Jonas, of Fernham near Faringdon, is renewing calls for a full inquest into his death at Oxford Coroner’s Court.

The 54-year-old is a member of the JFK (Justice For Kelly) Group, which last week put up 16 campaign signs in locations across West Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse, as well as 122 across southern England.

Mr Jonas said: “I just wanted to voice my support for the group. There’s a whole group of us across the country.

“We’ve been lobbying the Government for quite a number of years, trying to make headway to get him a coroner’s inquest.”

Mr Jonas, who lives six miles from where Dr Kelly is buried at St Mary’s Church in Longworth, said: “It’s coming up to the 12th anniversary of his death and it’s time they started doing something.

“In modern times not to have a coroner’s inquest is unacceptable.”

Asked if he believes there was more to Dr Kelly’s death, Mr Jonas said: “You can’t say one way or the other. There are lots of suspicions about what happened. It’s a very contentious subject.”

Current Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter responded to the campaign saying: “I have no authority to order a new inquest or to re-open the original inquest and I have no power to take any other judicial steps in the absence of an order from the High Court.”

Mr Jonas claimed the group had written several letters to the Attorney General asking for a new inquest, but when asked by the Oxford Mail, the Attorney General’s office said it had not yet received any.

Dr Kelly had expressed doubts about Iraq’s capability to use biological and chemical weapons within 45 minutes of being given an order. The comments appeared in a report by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan and appeared to contradict the Labour Government’s dossier on weapons of mass destruction, which was used as the basis of a case for going to war in Iraq.

In March 2004 Mr Gardiner announced that, after considering the Hutton report, there was “no exceptional reason” for the inquest to be resumed.

In an interview with the Oxford Mail in 2012 he said: “I was never under any political pressure.

“Whatever conspiracy theories people bring forward – and I think they will be brought forward forever – I don’t think I would have done anything differently.”