Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 15


     
     1        illustration of the press cutting.  In fact, that was
     2        designed to help you in one respect because there may be
     3        statements in press cuttings which are clearly made by
     4        Americans, or whatever, so you would be able to have one of
     5        the reasons in rule 25 of Order 38 in your full and formal
     6        notice, if Mr. Rampton chose to keep you to the letter of
     7        it.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  I think the grey area is that we have been confused
    10        or what maybe everyone has been a little bit hot under the
    11        collar about is that if we did a Civil Evidence Act Notice
    12        on a newspaper clipping, we would not been assuming that
    13        every word in that was obviously true and evidence.  But
    14        the point about the things that we have been putting Civil
    15        Evidence Act Notices on is they have been official reports,
    16        or Mr. Clark's statement, or whatever.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There, you see, as far as I am concerned,
    19        that has nothing to do with admissibility.  The fact that
    20        it is an official report ---
    21
    22   MR. MORRIS:  Does not automatically make it .....
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- does not make it any more admissible than
    25        the newspaper article.  What you are doing is you are
    26        giving a Civil Evidence Act Notice as to a statement made
    27        or statements made in the report, just as you are in
    28        relation to statements made in the newspaper report.
    29
    30        We have then got the question of admissibility.  If you
    31        manage to make those statements admissible, it might be
    32        that a statement made by an Environmental Health Officer in
    33        the report, once you have got it admissible by way of Civil
    34        Evidence Act Notices and so on, would merit more weight
    35        than a statement, apparently, made by Mr. Jones to a
    36        newspaper report when we cannot even find out anything
    37        about Mr. Jones, do you see?
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But that is a difference of weight, not
    42        admissibility.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  But section 4 is about allowing the material relied
    45        upon by someone acting in the course of their duty to be
    46        also admissible in evidence.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Right, it is, but that comes through the
    49        filter of the person who collected it.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  But the thing is, the point, for example, I 
    52        mean a perfect example, is the Preston report.  I would 
    53        assume that the entire report is admissible as evidence.
    54        It is possible, for example, a report could contain
    55        newspaper cuttings that the person making the report could
    56        not possibly know whether they were true or not.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, if I stop you there?  The Preston
    59        report, as you call it, I had not seen it as a document
    60        which is or forms part of a record -- maybe you are right,

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