Day 277 - 10 Jul 96 - Page 46


     
     1   Q.   "If the corporation wins she is ordered not to distribute
     2        the offending leaflets again"?
     3        A.  No, that is what I am saying, I didn't say that to her.
     4
     5   Q.   You did not say that?
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Miss Steel said that she did not say down to
     8        'rapport'?
     9        A.  Yes, that is right.
    10
    11   MR. RAMPTON:  I am sorry.  Rapport.  Not said.  What do you
    12        think you did say, do you remember?
    13        A.  I think she asked me and I wouldn't answer.
    14
    15   Q.   Then, if you move to the next paragraph, the journalist
    16        seems to recite her own question. "Did she anticipate that
    17        she is presumably still that fighting the case would take
    18        over her life", and this bit is in quotes, "No, no, but I
    19        did not really have any choice.  They said if we apologised
    20        they would drop the case but as far as we are concerned,
    21        what was on those leaflets is the truth.  I was angry that
    22        they even had the cheek and nerve to ask us to apologise to
    23        them.  It is them who should be apologising to us."  Did
    24        you say that?
    25        A.  I couldn't say that I said the exact words but the
    26        essence of it is, yes.
    27
    28   Q.   Right, so even if Barlow Lyde & Gilbert had sent you a
    29        letter before you ever got a writ it would not have made
    30        the slightest bit of difference would it?
    31        A.  I don't know.
    32
    33   Q.   Well, it obviously would not.  Not in a million years would
    34        you have admitted wrong would you, Miss Steel?
    35        A.  Well, I would not admit wrong if I had not done
    36        anything wrong, no.
    37
    38   Q.   No.  So all this stuff about not having had the letters is
    39        a nonsense?
    40        A.  The point about the stuff about not having had the
    41        letters is because your clients are deceiving the public by
    42        asserting that they wrote to us before they served the
    43        writs on us, which is not true.
    44
    45   Q.   And the implications which you are trying to convey is that
    46        you if had had a nice letter saying, "please withdraw and
    47        apologise", you might have thought about it?
    48        A.  No, that is not the implication,, the implication is
    49        that your clients are lying to the public by saying that
    50        they wrote to us before they served the writs on us and
    51        that is not true.
    52
    53   Q.   But it would not have made any difference at all would it?
    54        A.  I can't say whether or not it would have made a
    55        difference.  I know that I would not have apologised for
    56        something which I did not think deserved an apology.
    57
    58   Q.   In the next paragraph there is a sentence in the middle of
    59        the paragraph which says, "She hates the commercial pursuit
    60        of profit"?

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