Hutton was biased, says BBC lawyer

The BBC's most senior lawyer has criticised the Hutton report as being "biased".

Glenn del Medico said the inquiry into the death of Government weapons adviser David Kelly and the role of the BBC in the scandal had been a "dreadful waste of time".

Speaking at an event to mark his 38 years at the corporation, Dr Del Medico, who will soon retire as the BBC's chief legal adviser, said he would have cleared reporter Andrew Gilligan's story about the dossier on Iraqi weapons if he had been consulted over it.

Dr Del Medico, who has dealt with most of the BBC's major legal cases, said the Hutton Inquiry had created an " extraordinary amount of fuss" over an issue that did not warrant it.

"I think the consequences were extreme in every respect. I'm sure there are far better things for the authorities to concentrate on than one line in an early-morning radio programme," he said.

Dr Del Medico was also critical of Lord Hutton's conclusions following the inquiry.

"It's unfortunate that Lord Hutton made such a biased report. He got it wrong, but then judges don't always get it right."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT