Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 53


     
     1
     2   Q.   You gave him an opportunity to air his views?
     3        A.  Absolutely, yes.
     4
     5   MR. MORRIS:  No further questions.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Right.  Thank you.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  No further questions.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Thank you, Miss Tobin.
    12
    13                         (The witness withdrew)
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  There was one legal matter I wanted to bring up,
    16        not about today, but something about our witness on Monday
    17        which disturbed me.  But I think we are big enough to
    18        handle it.  It is that Mr. Rampton basically accused our
    19        witness of making up lies; this was Mr. Lamti.
    20
    21        I was informed what the correct procedure is, that if you
    22        believe somebody is lying or not telling the truth, you
    23        have to put the details to them; you have to have some
    24        grounds, some evidence; and I want to know, I would like to
    25        know if what Mr. Rampton did on Monday was admissible under
    26        the rules of cross-examination -- because it certainly
    27        extremely upset our witness afterwards, and absolutely no
    28        grounds were given of any kind.  So I just need some
    29        guidance on that, because I certainly have felt like saying
    30        similar things to many other witnesses, but I have
    31        restricted it to people where I have got obvious grounds
    32        and where their evidence has been tested.  His evidence was
    33        not tested at all.  So that is the why I ask for some
    34        clarification on that.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What do you want to say, Mr. Rampton?
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  Only this, my Lord, that I am not allowed to make
    39        accusations against witnesses; nobody is, and that includes
    40        Mr. Morris -- and I do not accept what he has just said
    41        about his own conduct, but that is beside the point.  I am
    42        not allowed, as a member of the Bar, to make accusations
    43        against witnesses unless I have material -- unless I know
    44        of material to support what I say.  What I am not obliged
    45        to do -- and, in this particular case, as your Lordship
    46        knows, could not do -- is to put the precise detail.
    47
    48        What is perfectly apparent is that I have been instructed
    49        by the people in France that what Mr. Lamti has said in his
    50        statement is untrue and that he knows it is untrue.  That 
    51        is sufficient for my purpose.  That is all that I put. 
    52 
    53   MS. STEEL:   Why, in that case, did Mr. Rampton not spend time
    54        going through it, saying, "That is wrong, that is wrong"?
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   There may be reasons why he cannot go
    57        through it.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:  I do not see why.
    60

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