Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 17
1 A. Mr. Morris, I think anything and everything about this
2 most unfortunate incident, tragic incident, was made public
3 in a hearing in a Coroner's Court I believe in Manchester.
4
5 Q. Jill Barnes said that the inquest was not shown McDonald's
6 own investigation?
7 A. Well, I do not know what Miss Barnes said, I was not
8 here for that.
9
10 Q. You were at the inquest, were you not?
11 A. No, I was not.
12
13 Q. I am sorry, you have her word for it. Do you know why, if
14 it be the case, it was not shown to the inquest why it was
15 not shown to the inquest?
16 A. I cannot imagine other than possibly the people holding
17 the inquest thought they would rather have their own
18 reports done by independent people.
19
20 Q. The reason it was not made public and not shown to the
21 inquest was because it was extremely critical of your
22 company.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know how many inquests you would
25 have attended. That is just not the way the Coroner's
26 Officer works.
27
28 (To the witness): Do you know whether the Coroner's
29 Officer asked your company for copies of any internal
30 report it had made?
31 A. I do not know, your Lordship. I would be surprised if
32 they did not ask for records of one kind or another, but
33 I do not know myself.
34
35 Q. I am afraid, Mr. Morris, I think you misunderstand the
36 Coroner's Court procedure. I will give you an example in a
37 slightly different context: If someone dies in a hospital
38 in circumstances where it may be thought that somewhere in
39 the hospital is to fault, the Coroner's Officer will go and
40 take statements from people in the hospital, but I do not
41 think there is any obligation on the Health Authority to
42 disclose copies of reports of its own internal
43 investigations, nor would I expect the Coroner's Officer to
44 ask for them unless he thought that he was failing to put
45 enough statements before the Coroner for the Coroner to
46 decide the cause of death.
47
48 I see nothing sinister in a private company, a public
49 company, a health authority, an institution making its own
50 inquiries for its own purposes but not delivering a copy of
51 the report to the Coroner's Officer.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: It is a matter of interpretation. I would see
54 everything sinister about the fact that an individual was
55 blamed for the death of his colleague while the Company's
56 own internal investigation was kept from being revealed or
57 even the fact that it had been done was kept ----
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I just cannot accept that.
60
