Day 128 - 24 May 95 - Page 62
1 look at those, and I do not think it is productive to
2 discuss any possible dispute further.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: No.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There may be an issue and an argument. It
7 may be found they contain something relevant. If they do,
8 it may be thought that the right thing to do is to disclose
9 the lot, rather than, say, the two or three which might
10 have something relevant in, I do not know. In any event,
11 it may be thought that there really is no harm in
12 disclosing the ones seen, on the basis that one will then
13 have to look and see whether there is anything which
14 Mrs. Barnes can fairly be cross-examined on, or which might
15 justify her recall in the future. But all this is talking
16 in, what I at the moment see as, a vacuum because no-one,
17 who is qualified to offer a view on the matter, has
18 actually seen them.
19
20 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord. Can I suggest a way of dealing with
21 it? Time is of the essence. I do not want Mrs. Barnes to
22 have to come back, if it can be avoided. Ms. Steel
23 indicated the other day that she thought her
24 cross-examination would not last much more than a day.
25 Assuming, without these documents, she finishes -- she
26 might have them in her hand by tomorrow morning, but I
27 doubt it -- she finishes -- if there are any -- some time
28 tomorrow morning, we will, meanwhile, obtain from East
29 Finchley the relevant files. Mr. Atkinson, if he is not
30 going to the races, or I, or both of us, will go through
31 them sometime tomorrow, possibly tonight if we get them in
32 time, but I doubt we shall, go through them tomorrow after
33 court, whenever that is, and we will make a decision
34 whether, and, if so, what parts of them might be
35 disclosable. That is the best I can offer.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What were the other documents you had in
38 mind? The HMSO publication you can leave for the moment.
39 Do not forget that -- I will say this while I remember to
40 say it -- when you get documents, it does not necessarily
41 mean you actually need to ask a witness questions about
42 them.
43
44 MS. STEEL: No.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Obviously, if you see something in the
47 document which is totally inconsistent with what a witness
48 has said, it may be important to put that to the witness,
49 but something like the HMSO document might very well be the
50 kind of document which, whether or not you put it to a
51 witness, you will ask me to consider in due course in
52 support of an argument, one way or the other. Anyway, tell
53 me about the other documents.
54
55 MS. STEEL: OK. I just found on the transcript where
56 Mrs. Barnes referred to the rest of 57M, and she said: "It
57 was a summary of the progress we made on safety to the end
58 of 1993". That was roughly page 7 line 29.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just list the documents.
