Kelly was in good spirits

New evidence of the circumstances that led to Dr David Kelly's apparent suicide emerged at the Hutton Inquiry at the High Court today.

The dossier and spin

Government intelligence officers were unhappy about the "spin" included in Downing Street's crucial September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons, the inquiry heard.

Two unnamed members of military intelligence wrote to their senior officers voicing concerns about the "level of certainty" expressed about the threat from Saddam Hussein in the document. Their concerns focused on the crucial claim - made in the dossier - that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction ready to be fired at 45 minutes' notice.

The inquiry heard that the officers had protested in writing that this was "too strong" and that they were unhappy about the "level of certainty in the foreword and executive summary"-of the document. The 45-minute claim was central to the BBC's report that the Government had "sexed up" its dossier - based on a briefing by Dr Kelly - and that intelligence officers were unhappy about this. Martin Howard, deputy chief of Defence Intelligence, said Dr Kelly would have been aware of the concerns expressed by the officers.

In a separate incident, Dr Kelly was sent an email by another intelligence officer, protesting that the dossier "has a lot of spin in it".

Mr Howard said Dr Kelly's direct involvement with the dossier was confined to its "historical aspects" - but added that he was in close contact with others who played a more central-role. Mr Howard denied outright any suggestion that Downing Street "knew the 45-minute claim was wrong" before publishing the dossier. He also denied a central claim made by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan that the "transformation was because of Alastair Campbell" Downing Street's powerful communications director.

The inquiry heard that the 45-minute claim was inserted in the dossier a matter of days or weeks before its 24 September publication date. The information was based on intelligence provided by a single " well- established and credible source," Mr Howard said.

The supplier is thought to have been a brigadier in the Iraqi army.

Dr Kelly's credentials

The Government adviser, smeared by a No10 official as a "Walter Mitty" character, was in fact a superb scientist and an " enormously impressive" expert on Iraq's illegal weapons programmes, Lord Hutton was told.

The picture of Dr Kelly painted by Terence Taylor, Washingtonbased president of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, was a world away from the Downing Street depiction of him as a fantasist.

Mr Taylor said he had first met Dr Kelly 20 years ago when he went to work at the Porton Down germ warfare analysis centre armed with a "very high quality reputation".

He had then gone to the former Soviet Union to help uncover details of banned weapons programmes. Mr Taylor described Dr Kelly as "meticulous in his work" and "enormously impressive".

His work as a weapons inspector in Iraq had been "superb" and had helped him win the award of the Cross of St Michael and St George in the mid-Nineties.

He played a key role, according to Mr Taylor, in forcing the Iraqis to admit for the first time that they had a programme to create chemical and biological weapons.

Mr Taylor said: "There was a time when colleagues were saying 'maybe they don't have a programme', but he was very determined and resolute in carrying through the inspections."

Mr Taylor said Dr Kelly's work was recognised not only in the UK and the United States but in "other countries around the world". Mr Taylor said: "He was involved in Iraq up to 1998. I think he did more than 35 inspections during that period." Dr Kelly had continued to give advice on Iraqi and other issues. "He was able to absorb large amounts of information and analyse it in a way that was very impressive."

His state of mind

Giving evidence by video link from Australia, Mr Taylor also said he had spoken to Dr Kelly only four days before he was found dead in a field near his Oxfordshire home last month. He appeared at the time to be in a "normal state of mind" and to be looking forward to going back to Iraq following the conflict, Mr Taylor said. A month earlier Mr Taylor had stayed with Dr Kelly in Oxfordshire and had found him in a generally positive frame of mind, looking forward to his daughter's wedding.

He had one "minor irritation" - about his likely relationship with colleagues in the Iraq Survey Group, the body currently searching for evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes. Under examination by James Dingemans QC, counsel for the inquiry, Mr Taylor said these were Dr Kelly's only " negative thoughts". Mr Taylor told Lord Hutton that he and Dr Kelly had kept in regular touch.

He said: "I think my last contact was about four days before his death and I spoke to him by telephone from the US because I was coming to the UK. I was discussing plans to meet him the following weekend, which would have been the weekend of 20 July, and we were planning to meet as I was passing nearby."

Mr Dingemans asked him: "Did you have any discussion with him about the situation he was in?" Mr Taylor said: "Not in any detail. Most of our conversation was about the Iraq Survey Group. He was clearly thinking about that - going to Iraq. He said that he was probably going to be going out in little more than a week's time. He was focused on that during this particular conversation."

Briefing of Gilligan

Dr Kelly must have known he had broken civil service rules by briefing BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan on the Government's Iraqi weapons dossier, a senior Ministry of Defence official claimed today.

MoD personnel chief Richard Hatfield accused Dr Kelly of a "basic breach of confidence" with his employers by providing information on the document. Mr Hatfield told the inquiry that Dr Kelly had been officially authorised to brief journalists - but largely on technical matters and not on sensitive policy issues.

Mr Hatfield said of Dr Kelly: "He appears to have had two meetings with Andrew Gilligan which took place off MoD premises which nobody had any knowledge of.

"He clearly had strayed beyond providing technical information. My understanding of him is that he could not have done that without realising he had gone outside the scope of his discretion.

"To comment on matters of government policy as a member of the civil service ... is quite contrary to what a civil servant should be doing. That is for ministers to do."

Leaking of his name

The inquiry heard the first detailed information about how senior staff at the MoD confirmed that Dr Kelly was the source of the BBC report claiming that the Government had "sexed up" its September dossier on the threat posed by Iraqi weapons.

Mr Hatfield told the investigation that it was "inevitable" that Dr Kelly's name would eventually be revealed - and added that the scientist himself knew this. The main reason why Dr Kelly would find the spotlight turned on him was that he was bound to be called to appear before the Commons foreign affairs committee.

Mr Hatfield described how a move by Dr Kelly himself to admit he might have been the BBC's source led to a series of disciplinary interviews between the two men. Of one such conversation in early July Mr Hatfield said: "We both conducted the conversation on the basis that his name would inevitably come out - and rather quickly."

Mr Hatfield said it was fair to assume that the media had already narrowed down a list of suspected sources to about "three or four" - before Dr Kelly's name was released - and that to have let this situation continue could have damaged innocent parties. With Dr Kelly's appearance before the foreign affairs committee looming, the decision was taken to confirm his name to journalists who suggested it.

Media contacts

The inquiry heard that Dr Kelly had a wide range of media contacts to whom he was officially authorised to give both attributable and unattributable briefings. His superiors at the MoD officially rated him as "an accomplished media performer" who "put across the Government's line with authority". He had appeared on TV and radio many times including Channel 4 News, CNN and various BBC outlets.

Pay and conditions

Dr Kelly earned £63,496, the inquiry heard. The scientist had a dispute with his employers about his pay, conditions and civil service grade. Mr Dingemans suggested Dr Kelly felt as if he had "fallen into a black hole" because of being constantly shifted between government departments and agencies.