Britain's Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon was today labelled a liar and a hypocrite by the lawyer representing the family of weapons expert Dr David Kelly at the Hutton Inquiry.
In his closing submission to the inquiry into the death of the scientist, Mr Jeremy Gompertz QC accused the government of treating the weapons expert as a "pawn" in its bitter battle with the BBC over the alleged "sexing up" of the Iraq weapons dossier.
He said Mr Hoon had been an "enthusiastic supporter" of naming Dr Kelly as the BBC's source and charged him with a "cynical abuse of power" in the Ministry of Defence's treatment of him in the days leading up to his suicide.
However counsel for the government, Mr Jonathan Sumption QC, defended the MoD's actions, insisting that Dr Kelly had had no right to anonymity and warning against "a hunt for other people to blame" for his death.
He backed the claim that Dr Kelly had received "outstanding" support from the MoD, despite Mr Gompertz saying his widow and daughters had been "deeply hurt and angered" by the remark.
Despite acknowledging mistakes in the BBC's reporting, counsel for the Corporation, Mr Andrew Caldecott QC also attacked Mr Hoon, accusing him of "cynical indifference" in his failure to correct press reporting about the dossier.
Mr Gompertz said Mr Hoon's denials that he had been involved in a strategy to publicly name Dr Kelly as the BBC's source had been exposed as "hypocrisy" by the diary entries of No 10 communications chief Mr Alastair Campbell.
"They indicate with clarity, if accepted by the inquiry, that the Secretary of State's denials of the government's strategy, put to him in cross-examination, were false," Mr Gompertz said.
"If, as the family submit, there was a strategy to out Dr Kelly, to use a witness to undermine Andrew Gilligan in furtherance of the Government's dispute with the BBC, this was a cynical abuse of power and deserves the strongest possible condemnation."
The inquiry is investigating how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being publicly identified as the source of the BBC's report on the Iraq weapons dossier by journalist Mr Andrew Gilligan.
Mr Gompertz said the MoD had not even had the "common decency" to inform Dr Kelly of its plan to confirm his identity to journalists who came up with the right name or offered counselling on how to deal with the pressures of the media spotlight.
After Dr Kelly's name was made public, the MoD had not sought to ask his wife how he was coping with the strain and his one request - to be accompanied by a friend when he gave evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee - was turned down.
"No wonder Dr Kelly felt betrayed after giving his life to the service of his country. No wonder he was broken-hearted and, as his wife put it, had shrunk into himself."
PA