Day 245 - 07 May 96 - Page 31
1 first thing this morning.
2
3 Q. I should say it is not disputed that some of the meetings
4 were public meetings but others were, I do not know, they
5 were not really public.
6
7 The point is, Mr. Preston, that you hired private
8 investigators to infiltrate the group and take part in the
9 activities of the group, attend demonstrations, distribute
10 leaflets, including the leaflet complained of, and that is
11 the truth of the situation; is it not?
12 A. No. My sole purpose was to find out who was doing this
13 so I could stop it.
14
15 Q. Right, but in the course of doing that, those private
16 investigators did infiltrate the group, get involved in its
17 activity, attend demonstrations, distribute leaflets, et
18 cetera. Ignore the et cetera if you do not want to answer
19 that part?
20 A. I do not know what "et cetera" means.
21
22 Q. Ignore the "et cetera"?
23 A. The people you are speaking of I have never met, I have
24 never spoken to. I gave one instruction, and one
25 instruction alone, when the project was started and that
26 was: Anything and everything that is done is to be legal,
27 but I want to find out who is at the route of circulation
28 of this document so I can deal with it and attempt to stop
29 it.
30
31 Q. You got feedback, did you not, from these private
32 investigators as to what they were doing at the meetings,
33 what they had found out, et cetera?
34 A. By "you" do you mean "me".
35
36 Q. You, yes?
37 A. No.
38
39 Q. You did not?
40 A. Never.
41
42 Q. You never got told what they found out or anything?
43 A. I have never met them. I do not know their names.
44 I do not know anything about them beyond they were there.
45
46 Q. I am not talking about you have met them personally, but
47 you must have seen reports that they have done?
48 A. No.
49
50 Q. You have not?
51 A. I have stayed entirely away from that.
52
53 Q. So who was it who was dealing with that then?
54 A. The matter was handled by Sid Nicholson.
55
56 Q. OK. We will have to ask him about that then. Are you
57 saying that Mr. Nicholson never told you anything about
58 what was going on?
59 A. I never discussed the matter with Mr. Nicholson.
60
