Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 26
1 MR. RAMPTON: Well, sensibly when all the evidence is closed,
2 certainly.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All the evidence is closed now.
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: Perhaps we should have applied for leave earlier.
7 As a matter of practicality and justice it does not make,
8 we would suggest, any difference at all. The report was in
9 the Defendants' hands, it was in the witness box with
10 Mr. Russell and he was cross-examined upon it as though it
11 were his evidence. If it now becomes his evidence because
12 your Lordship gives leave believing that it does not do any
13 injustice to the Defendants because nothing has happened by
14 that process which makes a disadvantage to them which is
15 irretrievable, then your Lordship would take the report of
16 his evidence and the Defendants' cross-examination as their
17 cross-examination on his evidence.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You say it does not apply to any other
20 reports. Mr. Morris said it did in the case of Mr.
21 Bishop. What is the position there?
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: I cannot remember off hand, I would have to check
24 this; Mr. Atkinson might do it. But my recollection is
25 that Mr. Bishop said that he either had checked the report
26 or, in fact, he typed it himself.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like you to able to help me on that at
29 some stage.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, certainly. It is important.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Because if I have to deal with the question
34 of leave or not, then I have heard whatever Ms. Steel or
35 Mr. Morris may say, I want to know how far it extends
36 beyond Mr. Russell and 26th April. It may not make a jot
37 of difference. If, for instance, I thought that the
38 balance of probabilities was that when Mr. Russell made his
39 statement in the middle of 1993, which was three years
40 rather than six years after the evening in question, he
41 could remember and therefore it was honest and reliable
42 when he said the statement was true, I can forget the
43 report.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: Of course, because he has affirmed that in the
46 witness box.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: In any event, Mr. Russell's evidence in the
49 witness box, regardless of what was in the report, was that
50 Mr. Morris in court was the same person who was there on
51 26th April, that he came in fairly late, that by
52 controlling proceedings -- that was on the last page of the
53 report -- he meant that Mr. Morris's voice was heard the
54 most, the one thing he could not remember without looking
55 at the report was him speaking on the topic of the Moscow
56 visit.
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: No, but that is in the witness statement, of
59 course.
60
