Day 198 - 08 Dec 95 - Page 26
1
2 Q. Did you achieve any non-commissioned rank?
3 A. I was a full corporal when I came out.
4
5 Q. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Coton. It is just possible
6 that Mr. Morris will ask you to come back in the new year,
7 depending on what further evidence there is, but you are
8 certainly released for the time being.
9
10 (The witness withdrew)
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What can we usefully do now?
13
14 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, there is a question which I have given
15 some thought to -- we all have on this side of the court --
16 as to the implications of Mr. Coton's evidence for the
17 question of whether we should invite your Lordship to hear
18 further evidence from our side.
19
20 I put it that way because in a sense it is not really an
21 application to call rebuttal evidence for this reason,
22 because Mr. Coton's statement, first statement, arrived in
23 court, as it were, long after my Colchester witnesses had
24 given their evidence. They, of course, dealt with
25 exclusively the matters raised by the Defendants' original
26 six Colchester witnesses, all of whom dealt with the time
27 when Mr. Davis was the Manager.
28
29 What emerged, my Lord, from (and I put it in different
30 categories in the hope it may help your Lordship)
31 Mr. Coton's evidence, partly from what he said in his
32 written statement, but partly also from what he said in the
33 witness box, was the allegation of docking hours which is a
34 new allegation not made by any of the earlier Colchester
35 witnesses, made for the first time by Mr. Coton. Your
36 Lordship may think it is actually quite a serious
37 allegation.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is the most serious of the lot, it seems
40 to me.
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: I respectfully agree with your Lordship. That, of
43 course, was never put to Mr. Davis or Mr. Stanton.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I was going to ask, because I have not gone
46 back through their evidence, whether that was actually put
47 to them.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: It was not -- I have and it was not. Because, to
50 be fair to the Defendants, they did not know about it.
51 They could not have known about it ------
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: They gave their evidence early in July and
54 they did not have Mr. Coton's statement until ---
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: No, that is right, they did not ---
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- late October.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: -- apparently until 25th October. Although they
