Inquiry hears how Kelly was outed

Scientist David Kelly was told he had been officially outed as the BBC's source in a 46-second mobile phone call from his boss, it emerged today.

Lord Hutton's Inquiry into Dr Kelly's death heard in detail for the first time exactly how the Ministry of Defence broke the news to the weapons expert that it had confirmed his name to the media. Detailed records of phone calls between Dr Kelly and his MoD line manager, Bryan Wells, showed how the scientist found out - eight days before he died - he had been named as the source of BBC claims that the Governmenthad "sexed up" its dossier on Iraqi weapons.

The crucial MoD records were only released by the inquiry today - leading to protests from lawyers for Dr Kelly's family that they had not known about them, and opening the Government to accusations of a cover-up.

In other dramatic scenes at the

inquiry, in Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice, one of Dr Kelly's former colleagues, Patrick Lamb, had to fight back tears as he recalled how Dr Kelly had asked him to appear alongside him at a meeting of the Commons foreign affairs committee two days before he died.

But the most startling revelations came from Mr Wells, who told the inquiry that the first time Dr Kelly had been told his name had been made public was on 9 July. Before then, he knew only that it was possible his name would be put out.

At 7.03pm on 9 July, Mr Wells called Dr Kelly from a mobile phone with poor reception. Mr Wells was taking the train home at the time, while Dr Kelly was also returning home.

The conversation lasted 46 seconds, the telephone record showed.

Mr Wells said: "I had been asked to pass on the message that the [MoD] press office had confirmed his name to the press. It was a bad line, I think we were cut off." But he added: "I believe that message was clearly passed on. He expressed no concern at all. He had expected by that stage that his name would emerge."

Dr Kelly called Mr Wells back at

7.09pm, and again the conversation was extremely brief.

The two men spoke further that evening at 7.54pm, 8.40pm and 8.44pm, with all the conversations lasting only seconds or little over a minute.

After the calls, Dr Kelly told his wife Janice his name had been made public and the couple fled to a "safe house" in Cornwall to escape media attention.

Dr Wells also told the inquiry how he contacted Dr Kelly to tell him the MoD had decided he should appear before two parliamentary committees.

Mr Wells admitted that Dr Kelly "was concerned about the publicity" his public grilling by the FAC would attract.

Mr Lamb, deputy head of the Foreign Office's arms proliferation section and a close colleague of Dr Kelly, fought back tears as he told how the scientist had asked him to accompany him.

Mr Lamb also told the inquiry how both he and Dr Kelly had found press comments on the scientist "hurtful" and "distasteful".

The inquiry continues.