1. Operation Mason, the police code-name for the search for Dr Kelly, was officially started before his family had reported him missing. The official explanation is that operation start times are often made retrospective to cover any preceding period relevant to the operation; but if this were the reason in this case, then the start time would need to be weeks, not hours earlier. Who authorised the opening of documentation on the operation and at precisely what time?

2. Why were there no fingerprints on Dr Kelly‘s knife, pill packets, water bottle, glasses, mobile or watch? He wore no gloves. Police knew this when they gave evidence to Hutton but the absence of prints wasn‘t mentioned.

3. Lord Hutton said photographic evidence showed Dr Kelly‘s body was found propped against a tree, yet the first paramedic to reach the scene said he was originally flat on his back. Who moved the body and why?

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Dr Kelly had been unmasked by officials a week previously as the assumed source of a highly damaging BBC report which suggested Blair‘s government had ‚sexed-up‘ the case for the Iraq war.

He always denied being the BBC‘s prime source, yet its report added to mounting questions about the existence of the infamous weapons of mass destruction (WMD), used by the then Prime Minister to justify sending British troops into the conflict.