Day 073 - 13 Jan 95 - Page 48


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  He is employed by a supplier to McKey.
     3
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  He is employed by a slaughterhouse called Midland
     5        Meat Packers.  He is a young man in middle management,
     6        I would say.  I do not know that he has ever given evidence
     7        before.  He has prepared himself to give evidence on
     8        23rd January.  If there were any merit in what Mr. Morris
     9        was saying, then I should certainly be amenable to a
    10        suggestion that he might be postponed so that the kind of
    11        compromise, agreement or co-operation of which Mr. Morris
    12        speaks might be forthcoming.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may be that it does not matter, but would
    15        it be logical for him to come before Mr. Walker or the
    16        other way round?
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  It does not make any difference.  Mr. Walker is
    19        the head of McKey's.  He has graciously (I say that because
    20        he is a busy man, he is the head of the business) cleared
    21        his diary for the last three days of that week, if
    22        necessary, starting on Wednesday.  Then we have the two
    23        Scottish academics who I do not suppose they will take four
    24        days, though one never knows.  Then Mr. Kenny and then some
    25        blanks after that to be filled.
    26
    27        My Lord, I make, if I may, the following observations.
    28        First of all, Mr. Morris is entirely wrong to suggest that
    29        the combined topic of food safety or food poisoning and
    30        slaughtering and animal welfare is a new topic.  It began,
    31        in fact, in July with Dr. Gregory -- Professor Gregory as
    32        he now is -- it continued with Mr. Oakley.  It then
    33        continued with Dr. Gomez Gonzales for a period I think of
    34        four days.  I should that Dr. Gonzales was preceded by a
    35        weekend and two days off, the 12th and 13th December, to
    36        enable the Defendants to prepare for Dr. Gonzales.  There
    37        are for those two combined subjects one thick and two thin
    38        pink files and two thick and one thin yellow files.  Since
    39        we began the vacation a day early on 21st December 1994,
    40        there have, in fact, been roughly three weeks time in which
    41        to prepare for the continuation of that topic.
    42
    43        Nobody could pretend that preparation for the environment/index.html">litter
    44        question required more than, frankly, about a morning of
    45        anybody's time.  Mr. Hopkins has been here back and forth
    46        (I feel sorry for him for that reason) on a number of
    47        occasions.  Presumably ever since they cross-examined
    48        Mr. Mallinson, the Defendants have been prepared to examine
    49        Mr. Hopkins if they had to.  My Lord, that means there is
    50        really no reason why in the remaining four days which they 
    51        are likely to have, Thursday 19th, Friday 20th, and the 
    52        weekend before the 23rd, even allowing for a day off, there 
    53        is no reason why they should not be ready to deal with
    54        Mr. Chambers on Monday, 23rd January.
    55
    56        There is also this to be taken into account, the
    57        cross-examination of Dr. Gregory about his observations at
    58        Midland Meat Packers was, what shall I say, sketchy in the
    59        extreme.  It may be that the reason is there is not
    60        actually very much that can be put to Mr. Chambers that

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