Day 270 - 28 Jun 96 - Page 44


     
     1        statement is the original oral statement containing the
     2        relevant fact or facts.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I did not ask you the final paragraph,
     5        which I think is the -----
     6
     7   MR. RAMPTON:  No.  My Lord, it goes on a for a bit.  This is
     8        obviously a report, "I am told that the SIS procedures" and
     9        so on and so forth.  Then she goes on at the end of that
    10        first sentence to what is a mixture of hearsay and
    11        inadmissible opinion or comment, which, again, in the mouth
    12        of a journalist is fair enough but not in the mouth of
    13        somebody purporting to give in evidence in this court.
    14
    15        There is some stuff about the Jack-In-The-Box case which,
    16        again, she is, quite legitimately as a journalist,
    17        concerned about, but she has no business telling your
    18        Lordship about it because she was not involved in it and
    19        she is not a scientist.
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is all the same hearsay basically, is it
    22        not?
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  It is.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What about (10)?
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:  I have not got numbers.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is the last paragraph.
    31
    32   MR. RAMPTON:  That is fine but, as I say, if you put that
    33        together with the little bits that are left, if I am right
    34        -- I do not mind if Mr. Morris wants to stand up and read
    35        those little bits -----
    36
    37   MR. MORRIS:  Which bit are we talking about here?
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  The residual chunks amount to nothing, but that is
    40        perhaps a matter for me to comment on.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That would depend on whether Ms. Steel and
    43        Mr. Morris wanted to read them.
    44
    45   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  My Lord, I do not think there is anything
    46        else I need to say.  It is a submission which I have made
    47        before in the course of this case on a number of occasions.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:  First of all, we did not really have any advance
    50        notice -- and I do not blame Mr. Rampton for that -- that 
    51        this was going to be a submission.  As there had been no 
    52        objection, and we did serve the Civil Evidence Act on 2nd 
    53        May -----
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That does not matter because all that is
    56        happening is the procedure, which we have followed
    57        throughout the trial, is being taken that since you want to
    58        read things out rather than take them as read Mr. Rampton,
    59        as you come to read them, is entitled to take any objection
    60        to their admissibility.  I then decide whether they are

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