Assistant "paid through legal contract" had already been paid for by hospital

This page is material from the award-winning investigation by Brian Deer for The Sunday Times of London, the UK’s Channel 4 TV network and BMJ, the British Medical Journal, which exposed vaccine research fraudster Andrew Wakefield | Investigation summary

One revelation was that the Lancet research had been funded by the UK's Legal Aid Board. In statements, both the hospital and Andrew Wakefield claimed that legal money had been used to pay the salary of Ros Sim, a technician. Wakefield said her work was "quite separate". However, this letter suggests (a) that the hospital had already agreed to pay Sim's salary from its own funds more than seven months before Wakefield approached it with the legal money; and (b) that her work wasn't "separate" at all