The man at the centre of Britain's Hutton inquiry, BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan, resigned yesterday after his story that the British government "sexed up" the risk of Iraq's weapons was criticised as unfounded.

The BBC and Mr Gilligan were roundly chastised by the inquiry into the suicide of government weapons expert David Kelly last July, who was unmasked as the source of Mr Gilligan's radio report.

Mr Gilligan said in a statement: "I am today resigning from the BBC. I and everyone else involved here have for five months admitted the mistakes we made. We deserved criticism.

"Some of my story was wrong, as I admitted at the inquiry, and I again apologise for it. My departure is at my own initiative. But the BBC collectively has been the victim of a grave injustice."

His is the third resignation from the BBC over the inquiry, which lambasted BBC management procedures as "defective". Director General Greg Dyke resigned on Thursday and chairman of the board of governors Gavyn Davies stepped down just hours after Lord Hutton's report on Wednesday.

But Mr Gilligan went down fighting, saying in a statement: "If Lord Hutton had fairly considered the evidence he heard, he would have concluded that most of my story was right. The government did sex up the dossier, transforming possibilities and probabilities into certainties, removing vital caveats."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office said it had no comment on his resignation.