The David Kelly waiting for me in the driveway of his Oxfordshire home 10 days ago was not his normal self. Gone were the usual smile and firm handshake. Worried and drawn, he stood there awkwardly.

“I have been told by the MoD (Ministry of Defence) not to say anything,” he said.

I asked him why.

“I think you already know.” He looked sheepish.

A few days earlier I had suggested to him that he was the “mole” who had sparked a report on the BBC that the government had “sexed up” intelligence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to help to sell the war to a reluctant public. He had denied it, but now his face was an open confession. He looked pale and his clothes hung baggily off his normally sprightly frame.

“It has been a very difficult time, as you can imagine,” he murmured.

Difficult indeed. Honest and decent, Kelly was no peacenik or whistleblower. He knew that Saddam Hussein had for many years pursued terrible weapons and he had had a key role in compiling one of the government’s dossiers about them.

However, ever the meticulous scientist, he felt it had exaggerated some aspects in its presentation. When invited by the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan to comment on the dossier, he had done so in confidence and soberly; he was not a man to use words like “sexed up”.

When Gilligan’s subsequent report had provoked open warfare between the BBC and Downing Street — a clash of behemoths that went to the heart of a greater issue: had the prime minister taken this country to war on false pretences? — Kelly had privately confessed his role to the Ministry of Defence.

As we stood there in his driveway in the evening sunshine, I asked Kelly how the MoD had treated him.

“For the record? They have been quite good about it.” Then he added: “But I feel as though I have been through the wringer.”

His ordeal was about to become far worse. He had just received a call from the MoD press office telling him that his name was about to be made public. He was going to be the fall guy in the most furious political row to erupt since the Blair government came to power. He had been betrayed by those he thought he could trust.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• An officer and a gentle woman
• Dame Helen Mirren is worthy of the Epidaurus
• Foods that can help to prevent swine flu