Day 306 - 26 Nov 96 - Page 42


     
     1        Because if you observe a demonstration and you are working
     2        on the assumption that there is only one leaflet, you
     3        therefore assume that everybody is distributing that
     4        leaflet, anybody who is distributing a leaflet must be
     5        distributing that leaflet, and that is what you are going
     6        to remember.  You are going to remember they were all
     7        handing out the fact sheet, even though the reality is that
     8        there was more than one leaflet and, you know, that that
     9        was not the leaflet that was being handed out on that day.
    10
    11        I think the point is that unless the leaflet is opened out
    12        both the A5 short leaflet and the fact sheet appear to be
    13        the same size, and Mr. Nicholson agreed that he was the
    14        length of the courtroom or further away from the people
    15        that were leafleting.  That was page 39, line 24.  So for
    16        someone who is not familiar with what leaflets are
    17        available and assumes that there is only one, he is not
    18        going to be looking for distinguishing features to work out
    19        what leaflet it is that is being handed out.
    20
    21        Sorry, I should have read this out before, because this is
    22        the important part.  On day 259, page 2, line 26, is where
    23        Mr. Nicholson said that he was not aware of other leaflets
    24        at the time, that he decided they wanted to stop the fact
    25        sheet, and that apart from the leaflet that he saw in 1984,
    26        which obviously looks totally different, that from 1987
    27        onwards he had started to receive copies of the fact sheet
    28        and that that was the only leaflet that he had seen about
    29        McDonald's from London Greenpeace.  I mean, I think later
    30        on he did accept that if there were A5 leaflets in the
    31        bundle with his name on from London Greenpeace about
    32        McDonald's, it would have meant that he had seen them, but
    33        basically he did not recall any leaflets apart from the
    34        fact sheet, so that is going to colour his whole
    35        observation and recollection of events.
    36
    37        Anyway, moving back to what had happened on 16th October
    38        specifically, the course of events, after he had gone back
    39        in from the veranda, he came back down about 15 to twenty
    40        minutes later and stood in the exit drive of the car park.
    41        That was day 250, page 39, line 36.  He said that
    42        Mr. Gravett was by then out of the cow costume talking to
    43        somebody and he had some of the leaflets.  He actually said
    44        he had some of 'the' leaflets and then he corrected himself
    45        and said, "No, well, he had leaflets in his right hand."
    46        I asked, "Which leaflets were those?"  He said again,
    47         "Well, I took it to be the leaflets complained of, or the
    48        leaflets", he said.  "I took it to be the leaflets", i.e.
    49        the leaflets complained of.  That was 250/40/1.
    50 
    51        Again, he is making an assumption about which leaflets they 
    52        are, because he thinks there is only one sort.  He actually 
    53        said on page 40, line 15, "I did not even know there was a
    54        short version until the next day."  He actually goes on to
    55        say something that gets pretty confusing about what
    56        leaflets they were when he found out.
    57
    58        But the clear indication, or the clear statement, from his
    59        evidence is that he was working on the assumption that
    60        there was only one leaflet and therefore that had to be the

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