Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 36
1 had 800 pages of transcript of the unedited interviews for
2 One Every Mile. He said this -- and this is on page 60 of
3 the transcript for that day -- he said: "I will certainly
4 try to make it available. I am sure if people want me to,
5 I will try to get it copied before Friday, but it may not
6 be necessary to copy it if it is available to be looked
7 at. So I will try and bring it in. I have not had a
8 chance to look at it and, therefore, I cannot hardly ask
9 any questions on it. I certainly will bring it in. It is
10 from the film director herself" -- my Lord, that was
11 Ms. Gabriel. Your Lordship said: "You do not need that for
12 Miss Anteneh, do you? It will be before Miss Tobin." That
13 was on 19th July.
14
15 Then on 25th July, at page 15, I reminded your Lordship of
16 that exchange, and I said that we would like to have
17 discovery of those transcripts; and your Lordship said, on
18 the same day at page 20 -- sorry, page 19 -- "At the moment
19 I am minded to think that they (the transcripts) are
20 relevant, and that if they are discoverable documents for
21 the purpose of the trial, copyright does not come into it"
22 -- because Mr. Morris was worried about some copyright
23 problem. Your Lordship went on: "There is no actual
24 embarrassment to you if I actually order you to produce
25 them, because then you have no option but to produce them,
26 whatever agreement you may have made. On the other hand,
27 I obviously want to hear some proper argument about it, and
28 it is a situation where I might well say that if either
29 Miss Gabriel or Channel 4 feel that they have a real
30 interest in the matter, I would hear anything which they
31 wanted to say as part of the argument on the subject. In
32 other words, though they are not parties, they could be
33 represented or Miss Gabriel could come and say herself, if
34 she wished. Channel 4 would have to be represented by
35 counsel, because it is a company. Miss Gabriel could be
36 represented if she chooses, but I obviously cannot embark
37 on that today, and today is our last day. What do you say,
38 Mr. Rampton?" I said: "I agree with your Lordship", and
39 I gave the reasons why I wanted discovery of the
40 transcripts, because -- and I am summarising -- from my own
41 bitter experience, one knows how often what appears on the
42 television is a very selective version of what appears in
43 the unedited transcripts.
44
45 That was the last we heard of that until, during the
46 vacation, on 7th September, Mr. Morris wrote us a letter in
47 which he said: "Jane Gabriel has required us to return the
48 One Every Mile transcripts which had been loaned to us.
49 She is prepared to attend court to verify the accuracy of
50 the film or to answer questions."
51
52 So, my Lord, what has happened is this, that even despite
53 an indication from your Lordship that the transcripts were
54 discoverable and despite the fact that we had not seen them
55 (though we said we wanted to and explained why), Mr. Morris
56 took it into his own hands to return the transcripts to
57 Jane Gabriel before we had seen them and without notice to
58 us.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He had no option, if she asked to have them
