Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 52


     
     1
     2        My Lord, can I finally say one word about Miss Tobin?
     3        I was just looking back at her statement just now.  It does
     4        have a tremendous amount of hearsay in it.  Therefore, I am
     5        a little bit chary about the usual practice of Mr. Morris
     6        just reading it out.  I do not, personally, mind how much
     7        hearsay your Lordship hears because I know what the fate of
     8        hearsay will be in your Lordship's mind.  But I am not
     9        terribly keen on Mr. Morris reading out a statement which
    10        consists, I would guess -- at a rough estimate -- about
    11        half of the allegations on their face.  Things like "he
    12        told me" or "they told me" or "she told me".
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What are you doing, encouraging me to make an
    15        exception to my ruling so that her evidence is taken
    16        orally, as the earlier witnesses were?
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  Either that, or it should be taken as read.  What
    19        I am encouraging the Defendants to do, through your
    20        Lordship, is perhaps something slightly different, which is
    21        to go through the statement with Miss Tobin before she gets
    22        into the witness box and verifies, it seems to me, is
    23        apparent on the face of the statement that, indeed, those
    24        bits are hearsay, and then if Mr. Morris wants to read it
    25        out he should omit those pieces.
    26
    27        It is quite apparent I do not have to go through them.  The
    28        Defendants now know what hearsay is, so that should not be
    29        a problem.  Perhaps, that having been done, one could have
    30        a short and, one would hope, relatively uncontroversial
    31        discussion before she starts as to which those passages are
    32        which should not be read out.  If it would help for me to
    33        say which are the passages which, to my eye at least, have
    34        the appearance of being 100 per cent hearsay I will do it.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think it would be probably, if you just go
    37        through it.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  I will do, yes.  It starts off -----
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is number 14 -----
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:  There are some parts I am suspicious of.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you have a copy of her statement here,
    46        Mr. Morris?
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:  I think it is in the bundle, yes.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is pale blue 2, divider 14.  I do not want 
    51        to embark on an argument now, but if you just say so that 
    52        I can put brackets around and Mr. Morris can, if he wishes, 
    53        or Ms. Steel.
    54
    55   MR. RAMPTON:  I will only do the ones which, as I say, to my eye
    56        are perfectly apparent.  There are others that I am
    57        suspicious of, but I will wait until I hear what she says
    58        in cross-examination, so far as that is concerned.  The
    59        first one -- they start on page 2 -- the first one is in
    60        the fifth paragraph, the last sentence.

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