Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 43


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
 
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  On the other hand, I have not more myself with
              Mr. Preston than about another 20 minutes.  I know your
     3        Lordship has it in mind that it may be possible for the
              defendants to defer some of their cross-examination of
     4        Mr. Preston until another occasion.  I am entirely in your
              Lordship's hands so long as I can be sure I get
     5        Mr. Beavers, if it is humanly possible -- if it is not it
              is not -- on to a plane on Saturday.
     6
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What occurs to me we might do is in that
     7        case go on to finish Mr. Preston in chief so that would be
              Mr. Preston's evidence in answer to Mr. Rampton's
     8        questions.  The suggestion then is that we call
              Mr. Beavers so that he can go back to America, then you
     9        can cross-examine Mr. Beavers to such extent as you want
              to and then Mr. Preston will come back into the witness
    10        box.
 
    11   MISS STEEL:  Can we have five minutes to discuss it, please?
 
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
 
    13   MR. RAMPTON:  Does your Lordship have it in mind that we should
              finish Mr. Preston tonight?  I am quite happy to do so.
    14
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is what I was thinking of.  It would
    15        not trouble you if Mr. Preston left rainforests to when he
              came back into the witness box, or would you rather hear
    16        that tonight? The advantage is this if you hear
              rainforests from Mr. Preston tonight, that you have heard
    17        all Mr. Preston's evidence which you might want to
              cross-examine on, do you understand?
    18
         MISS STEEL:  I think we are happy for it to be heard tonight,
    19        but if a decision has been made about when we are going to
              cross-examine then we would like time to discuss that.
    20
         MR. RAMPTON:   On my plan they would not be cross-examining
    21        Mr. Preston before tomorrow afternoon at the very
              earliest.
    22
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The suggestion is that we start with
    23        Mr. Beavers at 10.30 in the morning; you then
              cross-examine Mr. Beavers; he can go back to America; then
    24        we go back to Mr. Preston. I think they would like to
              consider the matter between themselves before we make a
    25        decision.  Sit down if you wish to, Mr. Preston.
  
    26   MR. MORRIS:  We would prefer to cross-examine Mr. Preston in 
              the morning tomorrow and if we have not finished our 
    27        cross-examination to deal with Mr. Beavers on Friday
              afternoon, because otherwise we will have two amounts of
    28        witness evidence in our mind at the same time.  We
              probably would get quite confused; so we would prefer to
    29        cross-examine Mr. Preston tomorrow morning, but if we have
              not finished by mid-day then we would agree to stop then
    30        and Mr. Beavers could come in at that stage.
 

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