Based on his body weight, the amount of water his body is likely to have contained, and the strength of the tablets, Dr Watt said it was not 'accurate or reliable' to suggest Dr Kelly had absorbed more than a 'therapeutic dose' of the medicine – in this case about two pills.
Dr Kelly's body was found in woods close to his Oxfordshire home in July 2003 shortly after he was unmasked as the source of a BBC report claiming the government 'sexed up' a dossier on Iraq's weapons.
Three blister packs of co-proxamol, each capable of holding ten tablets, were found in his coat pocket. Only one tablet remained. The official toxicologist, Alexander Allan, was unable to specify how many pills Dr Kelly had taken but tests showed he had less than a fifth of one tablet in his stomach.
Lord Hutton, who chaired the public inquiry into his death, found that he killed himself after cutting his wrist and taking 'an excess amount of co-proxamol tablets'. Co-proxamol ingestion is also listed as a cause of death on Dr Kelly's death certificate.
Unusually, there has never been a full coroner's inquest.
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