Day 292 - 01 Nov 96 - Page 06
1 about that, as an independent judge trying to hold the ring
2 in this courtroom.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: The reality is, whatever has passed, we have been
5 working continuously non-stop for over three and a half,
6 four years and we are completely exhausted, and we are
7 working each night on these speeches and each day in court,
8 whatever, and we are making submissions about the evidence
9 in this case.
10
11 It is helpful to us to have the time to do that after five
12 years of the case and two and a half years on trial. For
13 the sake of an extra few days, it is important for us to
14 have the time. I mean, even if we had a gap between each
15 issue, it would be helpful, because, you know, it is just
16 physically impossible.
17
18 So what is happening is we are making submissions which,
19 I hope, are effective, but we have not had time to read all
20 the material or look back over the material to be sure that
21 we are including all the relevant, you know, favourable
22 points.
23
24 For example, Dr. Gonzales; we did not read his transcripts
25 regarding animals. I have not read any of the material on
26 animals, in fact, because I was trusting Helen to do that
27 job, and she is trusting me to do this job. So, in effect,
28 we are saving the court time and unnecessary repetition
29 because we are doing it the way we are. Even though we are
30 not technically co-defendants, we are, you know. So
31 I think that we would appreciate some fluidity and -----
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will bear in mind what you have said, and
34 I also bear in mind what, in fact, I said, and I have
35 reason to believe the Court of Appeal said about a
36 continuing discretion in the matter. I think what we ought
37 to do is get on now. I do not mind you saying it, but the
38 points you are making are points you have made to me before
39 and they are points I have taken on board.
40
41 Is there anything you want to say, Ms. Steel?
42
43 MS. STEEL: I did want to say something briefly, and I am not
44 having a go at anybody, but during the summer, obviously,
45 having spent so long in court, we did need a break and you
46 said it was fair enough to take a month. On top of that,
47 in the summer we also had to put all our documents in
48 order, because we do not have anybody doing the filing for
49 us and we are not used to filing large amounts of documents
50 for court and things like that. Basically, both of us had
51 completely chaotic piles of papers everywhere which we had
52 to sort out. We also had to do the documents list, which
53 documents were accepted and which ones did evidence need to
54 be called on, and so on. That took quite a bit of time.
55
56 I mean, summing up this case would be a massive task for
57 anyone. We can see that from the fact that the Plaintiffs,
58 with their experienced legal team who have been on the case
59 throughout and are familiar with the issues, are still
60 working on their closing speeches now. They are not ready,
