Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 65


     
     1   MS. STEEL:   Because he is in charge of litigation.
     2
     3   MR. MORRIS:  If your solicitors...
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Dear me, if that carried the matter any
     6        further the only witness we need have had in the case was
     7        Mr. Preston.  He says he is not even sure what the
     8        implement is called.  You have got...
     9
    10   MR. MORRIS:  If your solicitors approve of an apology that is
    11        published as a retraction to an article then the solicitors
    12        will be under your instructions and they would be stating
    13        what would be McDonald's policy; is that correct?
    14        A.  I do not know that that is strictly true.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If they have it right.  You really cannot
    17        take this any further.  You can take it further in
    18        argument, but you cannot usefully take it one jot further
    19        with Mr. Preston.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:   Just one final point.  Does it concern you that the
    22        situation, as we have heard it on the evidence so far in
    23        the court, is that you were using the captive bolt pistol
    24        at that time, or your suppliers were -- does it concern you
    25        that a newspaper has been forced to print an apology which
    26        is incorrect?
    27        A.  If they were made to do something that is incorrect it
    28        bothers me.  I do not know that the article in its entirety
    29        is correct at all, however.  In my experience, working as a
    30        young boy on a farm, where there is now visiting abattoirs,
    31        I have never seen anything like one third of the animals
    32        have a problem come the beginning of the slaughtering
    33        process.  It is not even a decimal point of that in my own
    34        experience, but the answer to your brief question was, yes,
    35        if we ask someone to do something that they should not have
    36        done it troubles me.
    37
    38   Q.   Right.  Does it also trouble you that 3 former
    39        co-defendants apologised for some matters in this court
    40        -- obviously, not in this particular courtroom but in the
    41        High Court building -- which have now been withdrawn from
    42        the record by Mr. Rampton on your behalf?
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  What does that mean?
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not bother to answer that question.  It
    47        does not help me towards any issue in this case at all.
    48
    49   MS. STEEL:   Can I just ask you, in your evidence-in-chief you
    50        said that the Preston outbreak of food poisoning was 
    51        treated seriously and that when you heard about it you were 
    52        upset about this, or some word equivalent.  In his opening 
    53        speech Mr. Rampton said that McDonald's is a very large
    54        company and that it served 500 million meals in the UK
    55        alone and there are bound to be some mistakes in any large
    56        organisation, and I think we have heard that from some of
    57        the other witnesses that have come on behalf of the
    58        company.
    59
    60        Then you went on to say that, so, if you only have one case

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