Inquiry into Hutton leak

BRITAIN: Lord Hutton has ordered "an urgent investigation" into the leaking of his findings on the death of weapons expert Dr…

BRITAIN: Lord Hutton has ordered "an urgent investigation" into the leaking of his findings on the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly to the Sun newspaper.

A spokesman for the Hutton Inquiry said the investigation would include the six parties to the inquiry who were given copies of his report 24 hours before publication, its printers and the inquiry team itself.

The solicitor to the inquiry, Mr Martin Smith, has been ordered to establish what happened to each copy of the report and who had access to it before publication.

The judge will decide his next steps once that investigation has been completed.

READ MORE

The Sun's political editor Trevor Kavanagh published extracts of the report's hours before Lord Hutton began reading a public summary of his findings.

The inquiry spokesman said: "Following the disclosure by The Sun newspaper of some of the conclusions of Lord Hutton's report before its publication, Lord Hutton has put in train an urgent investigation into the handling of those copies of the report released to the parties to the inquiry in advance of publication.

"This will also include the handling of the report by the inquiry itself and by the printers.