A senior British judge ended the first stage of his inquiry into the suicide of an Iraq weapons expert today with a warning that no party to the affair could assume they were safe from criticism.
Lord Hutton, who has interrogated Prime Minister Tony Blair, his defence minister and top aides, said he would be recalling some witnesses for searching cross-examination when he resumes the investigation into Kelly's death on September 15th.
Dr David Kelly slashed his wrist in July after admitting he briefed a BBC reporter who accused Mr Blair's government of exaggerating the danger from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programmes in a dossier setting out the case for war with Iraq.
The Hutton inquiry has looked into preparation of the dossier and whether the government deliberately exposed Dr Kelly as part of its efforts to discredit the BBC.
"The fact that I do not recall a witness does not necessarily mean that he or she may not be subject to criticism in my report," Lord Hutton told the inquiry.
"Therefore when it becomes known whom I intend to call in the second stage of the inquiry, speculation as to whether certain persons may or not be subject to criticism may well be ill-founded," he said.
After four weeks of hearings which shone an unprecedented light on the inner workings of Blair's government, the BBC, and Kelly's own state of mind, few reputations have emerged unblemished.