Day 245 - 07 May 96 - Page 46
1 your behalf was taking letters sent to the group for
2 McDonald's benefit?
3 A. If he did something that was not legal, it concerns me.
4
5 Q. So does that concern you?
6 A. I do not know the circumstances. I do not know what he
7 was given access to, told or otherwise from those notes.
8 How can I comment?
9
10 Q. So, you think it is legitimate for your private
11 investigators to take letters which belong to London
12 Greenpeace not to McDonald's?
13 A. I have no idea what his brief was for opening the post,
14 what he was empowered to do by yourselves or anyone else.
15 I have no way of knowing from that.
16
17 Q. I can tell you for a fact that he certainly would not have
18 been invited to take them from McDonald's records.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Please ask questions.
21
22 MS. STEEL: It is clear, is it not, Mr. Preston, that he
23 certainly would not have been invited to take them from
24 McDonald's records. Therefore, he must have been taking
25 them without the consent of the people in the group?
26 A. Does it say in there he took them from McDonald's
27 records?
28
29 Q. For copying, for reference?
30 A. All right, but for who?
31
32 Q. He was hired by you, Mr. Preston?
33 A. Yes, he was.
34
35 Q. And he disclosed them to your solicitors?
36 A. Well, I do not know who he disclosed them to. I have
37 never seen them or this.
38
39 Q. Your solicitors have now disclosed them?
40 A. Yes?
41
42 Q. So they were given to your solicitors, so he took them for
43 your purposes?
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where are we going on this with Mr. Preston?
46 What point at issue does it actually go to?
47
48 MS. STEEL: Your private investigators were doing more than just
49 attending public meetings: They were getting involved with
50 the group, they were taking correspondence, distributing
51 leaflets themselves, were they not?
52 A. I have never met them. I do not know their names.
53 I do not know what they did. If they walked in this
54 courtroom now, I could not tell them from Adam or Eve.
55 I do not know what they did.
56
57 Q. In their statements, or certainly in their notes that they
58 made after the meeting, some of them refer to having
59 distributed the fact sheet that is the subject of this
60 action. Were you aware of that at the time?
