Law lord shows he is anything but a 'loyal placeman'

Lord Hutton's steadfast behaviour as chairman of the inquiry into the death of David Kelly has convinced even the most sceptical that the former lord chief justice of Northern Ireland will not easily surrender his judicial independence.

Fears that Tony Blair, in the aftermath of the apparent suicide of the Ministry of Defence weapons expert, had rushed to appoint a loyal placeman to investigate the conduct of his Government have proven groundless.

Lord Hutton, 72, has set his terms of reference much wider than many had dared hope, making it clear that he will consider not just the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly's death but also the political context. No witnesses, from the Prime Minister down, will be able to excuse themselves from giving evidence.

The unbending purpose of the law lord, once a top target for the IRA, was evident when he opened the inquiry last month with a clear message that he was stamping his own authority on the proceedings and would have little patience with those prepared to be economical with the truth.

James Brian Edward Hutton was born into a middle-class family in Belfast in 1931. His father, a senior rail executive and a Presbyterian, sent him to Brackenber House, a preparatory school, where he became head boy. Later he won a scholarship to Shrewsbury School, a public school whose more famous alumni include Michael Heseltine. At Oxford he gained a first in jurisprudence and in 1954 he was called to the bar of Northern Ireland.

One of his first cases was to prosecute Bernadette Devlin, the fiery young independent MP for Mid-Ulster, after the Bogside riots in the late 1960s.

Working for the authorities under the controversial Stormont government and remaining in Crown service when it was abolished, Lord Hutton became experienced in the ways of civil servants and politicians. Joining the bench in 1979, he reached the top of Northern Ireland's judicial tree when he was appointed Lord Chief Justice in 1988.

Since then he has been seen as a "safe pair of hands" who has done little to court controversy. One Catholic Belfast solicitor described him as an "establishment figure" whose record only looked good in comparison to his predecessor, Lord Lowry, considered a staunch supporter of the Government.

Nevertheless, Lord Hutton built a reputation for fairness and in one case even dismissed Private Lee Clegg's appeal against conviction for murder, saying that there was not the "slightest suggestion in Pte Clegg's evidence that he thought the driver was a terrorist". Clegg's conviction was later quashed by Lord Hutton's successor.

Lord Hutton was appointed to the House of Lords, where he is known as the Irish law lord, in 1997. He was one of the five law lords who in 1999 criticised Lord Hoffmann for not declaring his links with Amnesty International during the Augusto Pinochet extradition case.