Witnessing Gilligan's evidence

By Mark Davies
BBC News Online political reporter

As Jeremy Gompertz rose to begin cross-examining BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan at the Hutton inquiry, he conveyed a message from the family of Dr David Kelly.

His questioning would not, he said, take too long. The scientist's family had said they didn't want anyone "to be subjected at their hands to an ordeal comparable to that that endured by Dr Kelly".

It was a poignant moment on a day of tough questions for the BBC reporter about his story in which it was alleged the government had "sexed up" the Iraq arms dossier.

To some degree, of course, Mr Gilligan must be getting used to this kind of thing, if that's ever possible.

Gilligan has been accused of trying to mislead MPs about his source

Twice called before the Commons foreign affairs committee, this was his second appearance at the Hutton Inquiry. A further session is planned for Thursday.

He left it late before arriving in the court room on Wednesday, taking his seat in the waiting area by the cupboards a couple of minutes before Lord Hutton opened day 18 of his inquiry.

With a slightly furrowed brow, Mr Gilligan, wearing a dark suit and blue tie, stared at the press benches. It would not be unnatural if he was wishing he was sitting there rather than waiting his turn to give evidence.

Once in the witness box, his reports on the Today programme, and other subsequent broadcasts, were examined almost line-by-line as he was questioned by his QC, Heather Rogers, Jonathan Sumption for the government, Mr Gompertz and counsel to the inquiry, James Dingemans.

The finer detail of BBC press statements and letters, and the reporter's appearance before MPs, also came under the spotlight, as did the errors Mr Gilligan admitted to.

There was the "slip of the tongue" - "an occupational hazard" - in his first Today report, in which he said his source had said the government knew the 45-minutes weapons claim about Iraq was wrong.

Nor, he said, had Dr Kelly suggested that Downing Street "ordered" the Iraq weapons dossier to be changed.

You now realised that you were going to be found out Jonathan Sumption QC for the government

And he had been wrong to send an e-mail to MPs on the foreign affairs committee.

Under close questioning, Mr Gilligan remained composed, sipping water and occasionally playing with his pen.

Mr Sumption pressed him over his description of Dr Kelly as one of the senior officials in charge of drawing up the dossier.

The reporter had suggested the description, he said.

This was true, said Mr Gilligan, but Dr Kelly could have rejected it: "He was not a man in whose mouth you could put words."

Mr Sumption, arms behind his back as he moved to and fro before the lectern, pressed Mr Gilligan repeatedly over how he characterised Dr Kelly's background.

Pressed

He suggested the reporter had "sought to mislead" others about his source's status until it was revealed after the scientist's death that he was the reporter's source.

"You now realised that you were going to be found out," said Mr Sumption. Not so, said Mr Gilligan.

Lord Hutton pressed the reporter on his conversations with the MoD before the Today report on 29 May.

Mr Gilligan accepted that "in hindsight we should have asked the MoD for a response".

Why, asked Mr Sumption, had the reporter allowed his superiors at the BBC to say in a statement that his source did not work in the MoD?

Mr Gilligan stuck to his guns: it was a fair statement because Dr Kelly worked mainly from home and didn't have a desk at the MoD.

"Oh, come off it Mr Gilligan," said the barrister.

Mr Gompertz, meanwhile, centred his questions on Mr Gilligan's records of his meeting with Dr Kelly.

Insisted

A note made the day after the meeting had gone missing, the reporter said. A note he had prepared for the Today programme on his conversation with the scientist was not verbatim, but a summary.

With the exceptions which I have already acknowledged where the phrasing was less than perfect, I believe I reported accurately what Dr Kelly had told me Andrew Gilligan

Missing from the summary was Mr Gilligan's question to Dr Kelly asking if the dossier was changed "to make it sexier".

"But he repeated (the words)," said Mr Gilligan, who also insisted that it was the scientist who first mentioned the name of government media chief Alastair Campbell.

And all these words were picked up from the note he had made on his handheld computer, said Mr Gilligan, who also said he had had recording equipment with him when he met Dr Kelly, but did not use it because the large microphone was not conducive to the meeting.

After more than two hours in the witness box, the session moved towards its close as Mr Dingemans rose to ask questions.

The Today programme report, he said, contained "allegation of conscious wrongdoing" didn't it?

Happier

Mr Gilligan said he thought it was "less serious than that", saying it was "part of a political debate".

And he insisted he had corrected his earlier error by saying the government knew the 45-minutes claim was "questionable" rather than wrong.

"It's not much of a retraction is it Mr Gilligan?", said Mr Dingemans.

"Well, knowing that a claim is questionable is not the same as knowing that it is wrong; and for that reason I was happier with the word 'questionable'," replied the reporter.

Finally, it was the turn of Ms Rogers to wind up the session.

And that presented an opportunity for Mr Gilligan to restate the view he had expressed throughout his appearance before the inquiry.

Yes, he had mistakes, but "I believe I reported accurately what Dr Kelly had told me".