'Kelly brought exposure on himself'

Government weapons expert David Kelly brought his public exposure upon himself, a senior Ministry of Defence official said today.

MoD personnel director Richard Hatfield told the Hutton Inquiry into the scientist's death that he would not have found himself in the public eye if he had not spoken to BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

The inquiry is investigating how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being identified as the source of Mr Gilligan's story claiming the Government "sexed up" its Iraq weapons dossier.

Mr Hatfield - who was involved in interviewing Dr Kelly about his contacts with Mr Gilligan - said he saw no reason why he should have informed him that the MoD had decided his identity would be confirmed to journalists if they came up with right name.

"I did not think that I needed to tell Dr Kelly about it. I am not sure what you think I should have told him," he said in answer to questions from counsel for the Kelly family, Jeremy Gompertz QC.

He added: "The public identification followed from his own act of talking to Mr Gilligan."

Mr Hatfield said he had been surprised by earlier evidence to the inquiry from Dr Kelly's widow Janice, who revealed he had felt "betrayed" by his treatment by the MoD.

"I was very surprised to hear that he thought that way if that means the people dealing with this crisis betrayed him, because I think we gave him a lot of support," he said.