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Kelly widow: Husband felt betrayed
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The widow of weapons expert David Kelly has described the anger and despair the scientist felt after he was outed as the government mole in the September Iraq dossier row. Despite all the pressures of working as a weapons expert in Russia and Iraq, he never felt as low as he did after his name was linked with a BBC report that became the center of a row between the public broadcaster and the government, his wife told a judicial inquiry examining the events that led up to his death. "I had never known him to be as unhappy as he was then. It was tangible," Janice Kelly told the Hutton inquiry Monday. The weapons expert went "ballistic" ahead of his televised appearance before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee during which he was grilled by politicians on his conversations with BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan. "He just did not like that idea at all," she said. "He felt ... it would be a kind of continuation ... of a reprimand in the public domain." Despite his bosses at the Ministry of Defence initially "not being unsupportive" after he told them of his conversations with Gilligan, Kelly later felt betrayed when they colluded with the press to reveal his name as the BBC's source. "He said several times over coffee, over lunch, over afternoon tea that he felt totally let down and betrayed," Janice Kelly said via videophone from an adjoining room to court number 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, where the hearing is being held into the events leading up to her husband's death. He was also upset at the way Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had treated him. Mrs Kelly said her husband felt "he was being treated rather like a fly, I think was the phrase he used." After he had been outed, he became taciturn and withdrawn and looked his age, she added, in her first public comments on her husband's death since issuing a brief statement speaking of the "intolerable" pressures placed on her husband before his apparent suicide. She also told the inquiry how the family had found a document in her husband's filing cabinet "a couple of weeks or so ago." The document was dated May 2003 and related to people to be put on the New Year's Honours List for 2004. She said that scribbled in the top right hand corner of the document was: "How about David Kelly? Iraq is topical." Mrs Kelly, 58, said that her husband did not discuss the document and that it was headed "Confidential." When the Iraq war broke out, Kelly expressed "some trepidation." "He believed in it, but was sad that we seemed to be moving towards that position," she said. Kelly also revealed that her husband had been thinking about retirement, possibly in 2005, although he was worried about pension requirements. She also revealed the moment when her husband told her he was the suspected government mole -- as they were watching television. "My heart sank...(and he was) desperately unhappy about it, really really unhappy, totally dismayed." The Kellys' daughter Rachel and other family and friends are also giving evidence as the inquiry enters its fourth week. Rachel Kelly told the hearing her father had been "depressed" at the media coverage, and referred to one MP on the committee as an "utter bastard." Kelly was found dead after he was revealed as a possible source for a BBC report claiming the government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to strengthen its case for war. Last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair told the inquiry that if the allegation had been true, it would have "merited my resignation." (Full story) A day after Blair's testimony, his director of communications, Alastair Campbell, announced his resignation. Blair's press boss also testified at the inquiry and vehemently denied a BBC reporter's allegation that he inserted into the dossier a reference to Saddam Hussein being able to deploy his weapons in 45 minutes. (Full story) But pressure on the government over the dossier increased Sunday when the new chief U.N. weapons inspector, Dimitris Perricos, said the controversial 45-minute claim was wrong. "There is no doubt that the phrase of 'within 45 minutes' that was included in the British report did not correspond to reality," Perricos told a Greek newspaper. Also over the weekend, it was reported that an unpublished article written by Kelly in which he backed the case for war against Iraq was being submitted to the inquiry. According to The Observer newspaper, Kelly argued in the pre-war paper that while the threat from Iraq was "modest," military action was the only way to conclusively disarm Saddam. Kelly was found dead near his home by police on July 18. One of his wrists had been slashed.
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