Day 308 - 28 Nov 96 - Page 30
1 I will not repeat all that for Mr. Nicholson. Much of it
2 is the same. He was involved in a very similar way.
3
4 Can I also say that, with Mr. Nicholson, his approach to
5 London Greenpeace, in particular, and to critics, and
6 particularly use of police contacts and Special Branch for
7 information, which he would know, as a police officer, is
8 unlawful, that -----
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know that it is.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: It is unlawful for the police to pass on
13 information.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well -----
16
17 MR. MORRIS: We would say -----
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know it is unlawful for the police, for
20 instance, to divulge someone's CRO form or to use their
21 connections to find out who the registered keeper of a
22 vehicle is, and things like that, but I have never
23 understood -- I can ring up my local police station, and it
24 is up to them what they choose to tell me and what they do
25 not.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: Well, they are public officials, and they are not
28 entitled to pass on information about other members of the
29 public which is protected by the Data Protection Act.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Half their job is passing information about
32 other members of the public, with a view to an exchange of
33 information which might help them in the performance of
34 their duties.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: We have not got time to argue it now. But,
37 basically, our case is that it is unlawful, and that he
38 would know that, as an ex-police officer. His attitude
39 clearly goes beyond the technicalities of having to have a
40 court case. He clearly had a wider interest in undermining
41 critics of McDonald's, not just in prosecuting a case and
42 getting information. For example, the spies went a
43 thousand times beyond what they were, in theory, claiming
44 -- that the Company had claimed they had been hired for,
45 just to find out the names of individuals involved in
46 publication of the documents. They infiltrated to a very
47 great extent for a long time. He was in charge of that.
48 Clearly, McDonald's were gathering information in order to
49 be able to discredit their critics. I think that should be
50 seen as part of the background. They stole letters; and
51 Mr. Nicholson said that he put a stop to that as soon as he
52 found out about it, which we then heard from the agents was
53 not true; they were never told not to keep on doing that;
54 and Mr. Nicholson must have known, because they he got
55 weekly reports, for example, from Mr. Clare and another one
56 as well.
57
58 Mike Love has been dealt with, anyway, by Ms. Steel.
59 I have a few more points to make, and then I am going to
60 sit down.
