IT IS not merely Parliamentary and journalistic careers that are going down the pan at the Hutton Inquiry. Legal reputations are on the line, too.

Jeremy Gompertz, QC for the Kelly family, had a promishere?"-ing start, coining one of the more memorable lines of the Inquiry when he suggested the naming of Dr Kelly was akin to "a parlour game for journalists - or a game of Russian Roulette".

Since then it's been downhill, and yesterday some deemed Gompertz's aggressive line in questioning particularly inappropriate. "With the greatest respect, that is a very bad point," Geoff Hoon shot back at him at one point, under cross-examination.

Gompertz should know playing to the gallery is a dangerous game.

Back in 1998, when he was appearing for the Metropolitan Police at the Lawrence Inquiry, his grilling of Stephen Lawrence's mother Doreen was so combative that she demanded: "Am I on trial There were boos, catcallsand a slow handclap from the public gallery until the judge eventually suggested that Gompertz bring his questions to a premature end.

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