Day 248 - 13 May 96 - Page 34
1 against people involved with London Greenpeace?
2 A. Well, we take advice on it and if it was thought to be
3 necessary to the case we would use it.
4
5 Q. I want to move to your statement now. Your supplementary
6 statement.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is yellow 1, please, Mr. Preston.
9
10 THE WITNESS: OK.
11
12 MS. STEEL: Incidentally, before we leave the point, you said
13 that it was what you said was 'our aims and objectives'
14 that led you to taking this action, including support for
15 the Animal Liberation Front. Were you aware that Alan
16 Clarke the MP has donated money to the Animal Liberation
17 Front and supports them?
18 A. I do not know that I know Alan Clarke.
19
20 Q. A former minister?
21 A. I do not know anything about his private affairs, I am
22 sorry.
23
24 Q. So, just because somebody supports an organisation do you
25 automatically assume that they are responsible for all it
26 does?
27 A. Well, the reference in your document included the word
28 'violent'.
29
30 Q. In fact, yes, if you look at it it actually says 'a group
31 with non-violent'... It says 'If property is used to abuse
32 others it should be destroyed and that is not violence
33 because inanimate objects do not feel pain'?
34 A. I am sorry, it says something other than that. It
35 talks about breaking the law. I used 'violence' in the
36 wrong sense. "That is why we support groups such as Animal
37 Liberation Front who break the law. If property is used to
38 abuse others..." No, it is not clear there... "It should
39 be destroyed, and that is not violence because..." Maybe
40 I think it is violence because inanimate objects do not
41 feel pain. Well, people inside my Milton Keynes restaurant
42 certainly might have felt pain on the occasion of that
43 incendiary device. It may have been the intention to
44 damage the trash bin or something else, but there were
45 people around.
46
47 Q. It is accepted you have not got any evidence that was not
48 the Animal Liberation Front?
49 A. I have been told it was.
50
51 Q. We will leave it there.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: If you look at the third paragraph on the following
54 page of that document... I do not know if everyone has it.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have not even been referred to it yet.
57 I am afraid I am on Mr. Preston's statement, which is the
58 last document I was referred to.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: I was going to bring it up but we might as well
