Key points: week five

Here are the key points from evidence of witnesses in week five of the Hutton inquiry into the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly with the most recent witness first.

Greg Dyke

The BBC director general said that an attack on the BBC by Alastair Campbell during evidence to a Commons committee was "pretty near unprecedented" and meant the BBC had to take some action.

Mr Dyke conceded the charge the government inserted information into the September dossier knowing it to be false was "pretty serious".

He added: "But there is a distinction between a charge made by the BBC and a charge made by a source to the BBC.

"They carry a different degree of gravity."

Alastair Campbell launched a broadside against the whole of BBC journalism Greg Dyke New witness list

He said he subsequently opted not to reply to a personal letter from Mr Campbell as by then it was a very big public issue.

Mr Dyke said it had appeared both to him and to BBC director of news Richard Sambrook that the purpose of Mr Campbell's attack was to divert attention from his role in the so-called dodgy dossier released in February.

The director general said that in hindsight he wished he had referred the issues raised in a open letter from Mr Campbell to Mr Sambrook to the official BBC complaints procedure rather than opting to reply to it directly.

Andrew Gilligan's e-mails to an MP investigating broadcasts about his Iraq dossier claims were "not acceptable", said Mr Dyke.

Sir Richard Dearlove

The head of the MI6 intelligence service said he was not aware of officials expressing unhappiness about the September dossier or how it was put together.

Sir Richard - giving evidence by audiolink - said he was "rather amused" about the concern over the 45 minute claim being from a single source.

He said: "Much high quality intelligence which is factual or proved to be factual is single source material."

He said that "with the benefit of hindsight" there had been some valid criticism over the prominence given to the 45-minute claim because it had come in for "misinterpretation".

"I think what subsequently happened in the reporting was that it was taken that the 45 minutes applied, let's say, to weapons of a longer range, just battlefield material," said Sir Richard.

Air Marshal Sir Joe French

The former head of the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) defended the inclusion of the 45 minute warning in the September dossier.

Sir Joe, who said he was content with the language used in the final dossier, said the source for the warning was from a "very reliable source and one that had been used for quite some time".

Tony Cragg

Mr Cragg, former deputy head of the Defence Intelligence Staff, said the dossier was prepared and produced "by a rigorous process of drafting".

Staff concerns over the dossier were dealt with satisfactorily, he said.

Kate Wilson

The Ministry of Defence chief press officer said Andrew Gilligan had not given her details of his Iraq dossier story when they spoke the evening before the broadcast.

She said Dr Kelly had sounded "calm" when she spoke to him after his name became public.

Ms Wilson denied suggestions the MoD press office had given clues to journalists about Dr Kelly's identity.

Dr Andrew Shuttleworth

Dr Kelly's resource manager at the Defence Science Technology Laboratory said the scientist "was not bitter, he was frustrated" about problems with his pay and grading.

Martin Howard

The current deputy chief of defence intelligence said he had been part of talks with MoD top civil servant Sir Kevin Tebbit and others about the question and answer paper which told press officers to confirm Dr Kelly's name.

He presumed that if any journalists put the correct name to the press officers, then they would confirm it.

Questioned about the basis of that understanding, he said: "I thought it would have been very difficult to do otherwise. The purpose of the Q&A was to provide truthful and factual answers."

Apologised to inquiry for sending email to Lib Dem MP

Dr Kelly had said he was content with the press statement, said Mr Howard.

Sir Kevin asked him on 14 July to meet with Dr Kelly "to help him prepare before the ISC and to check that he was up to appearing before the committee".

He heard Dr Kelly wanted someone sitting with him at the FAC and ISC hearings that day, but after Mr Howard's meeting with him, he said he was content not to pursue this.

Jeremy Gompertz QC, for the Kelly family, asked Mr Howard who made the decision that the scientist should be named.

Mr Howard said: "It is hard to say that any one person should be publicly identified."

Mr Gompertz said the combination of information released "meant that any able journalist, with a little research, would be able to identify Dr Kelly", but Mr Howard did not entirely agree

Mr Howard denied the MoD had tried to name Dr Kelly covertly.

Mr Gompertz said the procedure used to name Dr Kelly "amounted to a parlour game for journalists" or a game of "Russian roulette", charges Mr Howard rejected,

There was no positive pathological evidence that this man had been subjected to any sustained, violent assault prior to his death Dr Nicholas Hunt Home Office pathologist

Mr Gompertz asserted: "I suggest to you that the strategy that was adopted with regard to Dr Kelly's name was both cynical and irresponsible."

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was not present at any meetings to discuss the naming strategy, although his private secretary did attend from time to time.

Mr Howard said he saw no evidence that Dr Kelly was not ready to be questioned by MPs.

Dr Nicholas Hunt

The Home Office pathologist said there were no indications of defensive injuries on Dr Kelly's body which would have happened if someone had been trying to "parry blows from a weapon or trying to grab a weapon".

Dr Hunt estimated the time of the weapons' expert's death to have been between 1615 on 17 July and 0115 the following day.

Wounds on his body were consistent with someone wishing to cause themselves harm, said Dr Hunt.

Blood loss was the cause of death with a drug overdose listed as a possible contributing factor, Dr Hunt's report said.

Richard Hatfield

The MoD personnel director insisted that the support provided to Dr David Kelly while he was being quizzed over his press contacts was "outstanding".

He said he had told Dr Kelly that his name might come out.

Dr Kelly's pension was never mentioned as it was not at risk.

The MoD personnel director admitted he did not ask for Dr Kelly's consent to be publicly named.

Dr Kelly's naming came from "his own act" of talking to Andrew Gilligan, said Mr Hatfield.

Dr Kelly was not informed about the Q&A that was used to name him to journalists because Mr Hatfield did not think he needed to tell the weapons expert about it.

Richard Sambrook

The BBC director of news agreed that the corporation would have to learn lessons from the Kelly affair.

Mr Sambrook said that he believed the allegations raised in Andrew Gilligan's report should have been put to Downing Street.

He also said he accepted the BBC's reply to the complaint from Alastair Campbell contained inaccuracies.

He said the e-mail sent by Mr Gilligan to MPs involved in the inquiry into the Iraq war was "improper".

Mr Gilligan was in some respects a great journalist in terms of gathering information but he lacked "nuance and subtlety" in the way the information was presented, said Mr Sambrook.

Mr Sambrook agreed there had been a general perception that Mr Gilligan's source had been in the intelligence community when it subsequently emerged he had not.

Mr Sambrook said he now thinks the BBC should have paused and "looked at great length" at the allegations being levelled at the corporation.

Andrew Gilligan

Mr Gilligan said Dr Kelly did not say the government knew the intelligence was wrong or unreliable - this was a logical conclusion to take from his words but he was wrong to suggest it was something the scientist had told him directly.

Mr Gilligan said he had given MoD chief press officer Kate Wilson the "gist" of the allegations.

Mr Gilligan apologised to the inquiry for sending an e-mail to a Liberal Democrat MP revealing Dr David Kelly as the source for another story reported on Newsnight.

Dr Kelly was not a man into whose mouth you could put words Andrew Gilligan

Mr Gilligan said the allegation he intended to make was of "spin", not dishonesty.

Mr Gilligan admitted it was a mistake to have described Dr Kelly as "my intelligence service source" on Radio 5 Live - it was "simply a slip of the tongue".

He denied playing a "name game" with Dr Kelly about who had transformed the dossier.

The BBC reporter denied doctoring his notes of his meeting with Dr Kelly.

He said only the second version of his notes of his meeting with Dr Kelly contained Alastair Campbell's name because he created a new version of the memo on his handheld computer when he agreed the quotes he would use with Dr Kelly.

William Wilding

The computer expert said he had looked at Andrew Gilligan's electronic personal organiser and had discovered that in two notes he had about conversations with Dr David Kelly only the second one had mentioned Alastair Campbell.

He also said that there was a discrepancy of a day between the time of the meeting and the actual note - something which Mr Gilligan explained by saying the organiser had not had the correct date programmed in.