As previously unseen footage of Dr Kelly was broadcast on Panorama last night, The Times has learnt that police interviewed 500 people and took 300 witness statements. But fewer than 70 of them were passed to Lord Hutton.

Most were not handed on because police decided they were not relevant, but Nicholas Gardiner, the Oxfordshire Coroner, wants to see them for himself before accepting Lord Hutton’s verdict next week.

At least five witnesses, including Mai Pederson, the American woman who introduced Dr Kelly to the Baha’i faith, refused to release their statements. Mr Gardiner said: “What their motives might be for not handing over their statements I have no idea but I think I ought to see them.”

He will meet senior Thames Valley Police officers this week to demand access to the documents unseen by Lord Hutton. Mr Gardiner may also look at fresh information about Dr Kelly’s lonely childhood, including the collapse of his parents’ marriage and his abandonment by his father.

The disclosures come as Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter heavily criticised in Panorama’s examination of the Kelly affair, launched a scathing counter-attack against his BBC colleagues. In the programme John Ware, the Panorama journalist, said that the BBC was on a “shaky foundation” because Mr Gilligan had already been “hauled over the coals” for loose language before his controversial report on the Iraq dossier.

Mr Gilligan told The Times: “It is f***ing outrageous. I am furious that John Ware has said this about me without even putting it to me.”

Mr Gilligan said that he could recall one meeting with Richard Sambrook, his manager, where he was criticised. “It was a meeting to say how well I had done in Iraq and I was criticised over one matter. It was 95 per cent praise. In no sense could it be described as a hauling over the coals.” Mr Gilligan said that he had spoken to Mr Sambrook last night who agreed that he had not been hauled over the coals. Mr Sambrook declined to comment.

Panorama also showed Dr Kelly saying that Iraq’s biological weapons could be used within “days or weeks” rather than 45 minutes, as the Government’s dossier claimed.

A week before Lord Hutton issues his report on the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly’s death, The Times can disclose more about his troubled childhood in South Wales.

Another document not seen by Lord Hutton was the will of Dr Kelly’s father, which suggests that the pair were never reconciled after the family fell apart. It is just one of many documents that Mr Gardiner is likely to study before deciding whether to pursue his own full inquest. The Hutton inquiry also failed to investigate his relationship with Mai Pederson, the Arab-American military linguist who initiated him into the Baha’i faith. She was questioned by Thames Valley Police but her evidence was not shown to Lord Hutton. The coroner will study the statements in conjunction with the Hutton report when it is published next Wednesday. He will also consider any other information about Dr Kelly’s life that he deems relevant before deciding whether to resume the inquest.

He said he had already received and read scores of letters offering fresh information about Dr Kelly in recent weeks. He will make a formal announcement of his decision in court but this will not be until at least 28 days after the publication of Lord Hutton’s report for legal reasons.

The inquest was adjourned under section 17a of the 1988 Coroners Act, which allows a public inquiry conducted by a judge to fulfil the function of an inquest, and Lord Hutton’s report will include a verdict similar to that recorded at a coroner’s court. The coroner could still hold his own hearing.

A spokeswoman for the inquiry said: “Lord Hutton will present his report to Lord Falconer (of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, who) will provide a copy to the coroner. The coroner will read it and make a decision about whether there are grounds for him to reopen his inquest or whether he is satisfied with the findings.”

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