Day 265 - 19 Jun 96 - Page 79
1 need notice because I have to cross-examine these people
2 and I have to cross-examine them about particular dates and
3 occasions. It is important that I have -- I do not need a
4 formal witness statement -- so long as I have an indication
5 of which witness is going to say what about each of the
6 inquiry agents in as much detail as the witness can
7 remember -- I do not expect people to remember chapter and
8 verse (I think only Mr. Morris expects that) after six
9 years -- but I really do. I mean, if there is, for
10 example, a picket where it is said that one of the inquiry
11 agents dished out antiMcDonald's leaflets, I need to know
12 when the picket was and where it took place. If it turns
13 out it was Michelle Hooker in January 1991, it may not
14 matter a row of beans. If it is said it is somebody else
15 much earlier on, then it may matter.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like to deal with that as soon as we
18 have finished Miss Brophy's evidence tomorrow.
19
20 MR. RAMPTON: I am grateful to your Lordship.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Now, what else tomorrow? Have you got some
23 reading you can do, or is there something particularly you
24 want to deal with?
25
26 MS. STEEL: I mean, there are probably any number of things
27 that we could do, for example the statements, but also the
28 computer printouts or we can read out some statements.
29 Sorry, not the computer printouts but the accepted
30 documents.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, the various documents. How far have you
33 got with that?
34
35 MS. STEEL: We have made a start but not got very far at all.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
38
39 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, can I say, for entirely personal reasons,
40 I hate being in court when the statements are read.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You would not have to be.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: I would not have to be, no. But I do not believe
45 that is an important function in this case. I know the
46 Defendants do not agree with me, but I really think that is
47 right at the bottom of the level of priorities.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is at the bottom of the ladder of
50 priorities because if we get near a date when I think the
51 evidence should be finished, whatever view I have taken so
52 far, if reading cannot be squeezed in in the time I will
53 just have to say "no".
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: Well, that is right.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will take them as read and they will not be
58 read out in open court. There is no point in it. The
59 relevant parts can be referred to in submissions without
60 reading them all out as evidence to lead to such and such a
