Day 120 - 03 May 95 - Page 68


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would like further enquiries to be made.
     3        It may very well be that it will not come to it and the
     4        cross-examination of him will be finished in a week.  But
     5        I can see he is an important witness, and one certainly
     6        cannot say, "You must be restricted to that week".  You are
     7        not contemplating that because ----
     8
     9   MR. RAMPTON:  I did not say that.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I appreciate that because you are thinking of
    12        him coming back.  From my own personal point of view,
    13        I like to see witnesses getting through and completing
    14        their evidence if one possibly can.
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, we will certainly look into it.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would like you to look into it.  Quite
    19        apart from any merit I may think there is in what Ms. Steel
    20        said, I have my own position to consider and, quite apart
    21        from the satisfaction, one gets a feeling, "Well, that
    22        witness has completed his evidence".  It is much easier to
    23        follow if it is continuous and one does not have to go back
    24        more often than is necessary.
    25
    26   MR. RAMPTON:  I agree with that myself.  It is a question of
    27        balancing one thing against another.  All I was saying was
    28        that I am not greatly impressed by Ms. Steel's supposed
    29        difficulty after three weeks in preparing to continue the
    30        last remnants of cross-examination.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Whether or not you are right about that, I am
    33        not happy with a five week gap, yet another witness with a
    34         ----
    35
    36   MR. RAMPTON:  With respect, my Lord, it is not five; it is
    37        three.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, quite right.
    40
    41   MR. RAMPTON:  Whether it matters it is three or five is another
    42        question.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may come to the same thing.  I would like
    45        you to make the enquiry.  I would like if it is at all
    46        possible, even though it may mean some inconvenience to
    47        Mr. Stein or to his employer, for him to be done in one
    48        bite if he possibly can be.
    49
    50   MR. RAMPTON:  We will see what we can do. 
    51 
    52        My Lord, the last thing I would like to raise is an 
    53        entirely personal thing, and I hope it will be the only
    54        time in this long case where I ask your Lordship for an
    55        indulgence.  Normally one would do it by writing to the
    56        judge, but I think in a case like this it is better to do
    57        it in open court.  I have a son being married in Cumbria in
    58        the week of the 8th July.  That being the location, I was
    59        wondering whether your Lordship would allow me at any rate
    60        some part of Friday 7th and/or Monday 10th off?

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