Lord Hutton paid tribute to "the great assistance" Janice Kelly and her daughters had given to the inquiry at a time of "great sorrow" for them.

Dr Kelly's widow gave evidence to the very public Hutton inquiry only weeks after her husband of 36 years apparently committed suicide.

Dignified throughout, she told the inquiry her husband felt "totally let down and betrayed" at the way his employers allowed his identity to become public knowledge and how they portrayed him.

Mrs Kelly suggested her husband had firstly been misled and then given little or no support when his name emerged in the public domain.

She was at home the day he died, watching him become increasingly tired and subdued. "He had shrunk into himself," she said.

In a statement released after the report's release, the family urged the government to take action to ensure the ordeal suffered by their husband and father would never be repeated.