Sister of UN 'suicide' scientist who died in mysterious fall rescues potential evidence from destructionThe sister of a British scientist who died in a mysterious fall has told how
she rescued potential evidence from being destroyed by police.Beverley Hall, 49, said she has been forced to store the clothes her brother wore on the night he died after officers revealed they were due to be burned.
She is now campaigning for police to investigate properly the death of Timothy Hampton, who plunged from the 17th floor of a UN building in Vienna last month.
Austrian detectives have insisted that Mr Hampton, a 47-year-old scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, committed suicide.
But Mrs Hall, who runs a caravan park in Newbury, Berkshire, believes there is enough evidence – including signs of bruising around her brother’s neck consistent with strangulation – to suggest he did not kill himself.
Last night, Richard Benyon, the family’s MP, said Mrs Hall had brought her brother’s possessions to the UK to prevent police from destroying them.
He said: ‘She was in Vienna and was told that the clothes were going to be burned, destroyed. So she has had to bring the clothes back to the UK in sealed bags. They are sitting in her house.
‘One would think that in such circumstances the clothes would be kept by the authorities but not in this case. Beverley said she felt like screaming in conversations with the authorities. I am getting increasingly concerned.’
Mr Hampton, a father of one, was found dead at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna at around 8pm on October 20.
An initial post-mortem examination concluded there were ‘no suspicious circumstances’ surrounding his death.
But his widow Olena Gryshcuk and her family were unhappy with that verdict and a second examination undertaken on their behalf found bruising ‘not consistent with a fall’.
One theory the family want the authorities to examine is that Mr Hampton, who worked for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation, was carried to the 17th floor from his workplace on the sixth floor and thrown to his death.
It is understood they are also concerned that the Austrian authorities and the UN have been reluctant to treat with the death as suspicious.
Mr Benyon said: ‘Mr Hampton’s former colleagues are terrified and no one is working late like they used to. Morale is very low. ‘Beverley presented the evidence of the second autopsy but the authorities still insisted that there was nothing to suggest anything but suicide.’
Mr Benyon said he had raised the matter with Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant, who
was applying pressure on the authorities through the British Embassy in Vienna.
CNTBTO staff monitor tremors worldwide to uncover illegal nuclear tests. The UN has denied claims Mr Hampton may have been involved in talks discussing nuclear testing in Iran.
An Austrian police spokesman refused to comment on the case but said that possessions were burned only when they were no longer relevant to an inquiry.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229836/Sister-British-UN-death-plunge-scientist-rescues-evidence-destruction-bid-disprove-suicide-theory.htmlRichard Benyon has written to the prime minister over the death of a former St Bartholomew's pupil in ViennaNEWBURY MP Richard Benyon has demanded action over the suspicious death of a nuclear weapons expert and former St Bartholomew’s School pupil.
He has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for a “full and proper investigation” into the demise of 46-year-old Timothy Hampton, who, he said, was engaged in “very sensitive” work to prevent rogue regimes testing nuclear technology.
Mr Hampton’s body was found at the bottom of a stairwell in the United Nations building in Vienna on October 20 and an initial autopsy is said to have found "no suspicious circumstances”.
However, said Mr Benyon, Mr Hampton’s family, who live in Newbury and Swindon, arranged a second autopsy which suggested he may have been murdered before he fell.
He told newburytoday: “There were suggestions of internal bruising on the neck which could have been caused by strangulation.”
Mr Hampton worked as a scientist for the Austrian-based Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CNTBTO) and while the British Foreign Office has confirmed Mr Hampton’s death and said local police are still investigating the cause, Austrian media reports state that the police have concluded that Mr Hampton took his own life.
The CNTBTO, in a statement, dismissed claims that Mr Hampton may have been involved in negotiations over Iranian nuclear ambitions as “fabrication”.
However, in his letter to Mr Brown, Mr Benyon pleaded with the premier to intervene, warning: “Every passing day the ability to collate evidence becomes harder.”
Mr Benyon said: “The more I look into this matter the more concerned I become. The UN authorities aren’t investigating properly; the Viennese authorities are taking the path of least resistance by saying it’s within UN jurisdiction
and no one has even fingerprinted the watch found by the body.
“Here we have a happy individual, happy with his partner and who has just become a father, enjoying his job and with no possible reason to commit suicide - and yet it’s being written off as such.”
He added: “He was doing a very sensitive job and the family wishes for British detectives to fly out and investigate. There are too many unanswered questions.”
His letter to Mr Brown concludes: “The family would be grateful if you could give weight to their demands for a full and proper investigation into this tragedy.”
http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=11651 Thu, November 19 2009
Good to see this is NOT going away..
