Day 249 - 14 May 96 - Page 68
1 witness statement to know what her case is about this. It
2 may be that I should be prompted to make some further
3 inquiries of my own, and after the break, which is at the
4 end of May, beginning of June, it may be too late.
5
6 MS. STEEL: What would you like me to do, Mr Rampton, write it
7 while I am here cross-examining the witness?
8
9 MR. RAMPTON: I am actually speaking to the judge, or trying to
10 address the judge. It would be helpful to know what
11 Ms. Steel's case is. She says private investigators
12 attended pickets and handed out leaflets. If she suggested
13 to Mr. Nicholson identities and dates it might help us to
14 know what her case is.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest you do... You see, the way the
17 question has been put at the moment is whether he read
18 reports which had certain information in them and he said
19 he cannot remember. So, for better or worse that is the
20 end of the line so far as his recollection is concerned.
21 But what I suggest you put to Mr. Nicholson -- since
22 Mr. Carroll has come and gone 3 weeks ago -- nearly 4 weeks
23 ago -- Mr. Nicholson is in the witness box now, and it
24 looks as if it will be 3 weeks anyway before we come back,
25 and possibly 4 after Mr. Nicholson has given evidence
26 today, and if we come back to him on Wednesday afternoon or
27 Friday afternoon there may well then be something like a
28 3-week break before we come back to publication witnesses
29 -- what your case is in so far as matters such as this
30 and, indeed, the question of when the private
31 investigators, or a private investigator, carried on
32 observations after January 1991. The form you can put it
33 in if you choose is 'I suggest to you that', and then take
34 it item by item rather than rolling up a lot of allegations
35 in one question. If you do have a question put to you,
36 I suggest to you that, treat it as a question and either
37 say 'I do not know' or, if you feel from your knowledge
38 that it is wrong, say that, or if you feel from your
39 knowledge that it is or might be right, say that.
40 A. Yes, my Lord.
41
42 Q. Whatever occurs to you to be the appropriate answer. But
43 although this obligation will still be there for you to
44 produce a further statement with the matters you can give
45 evidence about in it, that way you put to a Plaintiffs'
46 witness, whom yourself described as an important
47 Plaintiffs' witness, what your case is on matters which do
48 not yet appear in the witness statements you have served.
49 Do you understand?
50
51 MS. STEEL: Yes.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do it in as much detail as you reasonably
54 can. So, for instance, I suggest with regard to the
55 private investigator after January 1991, you suggest 'do
56 your best to suggest when he attended meetings', 'where
57 they were', 'what, if anything, he did' and with regard to
58 Dalston, for instance, 'when that occurred' and 'what the
59 leaflets were', and any other things like that which you
60 would feel obliged to put into your witness statement or
