Day 261 - 12 Jun 96 - Page 53
1 they were names that you recollect from the group?
2 A. No, no, it is not. I do not know why I remember who
3 I remember. Most of the names that I have remembered,
4 I think, are names of people who I possibly spoke to more
5 than other members of the group.
6
7 Q. Of the meetings that you attended, New Zealand John was at
8 least two of those. So, in your view, would that make him
9 a regular attender?
10 A. I suppose by one definition of regular, it would make
11 him a regular attender, yes.
12
13 Q. Right. So, by some definitions, you would not consider him
14 to be a regular attender?
15 A. I do not know his full attendance history. I do not
16 remember when he attended when I was attending exactly,
17 because I am not looking through my notes. But if you say
18 I was there 26 times and he was there 12 of them, then he
19 is a fairly regular attender during my period, I suppose.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is the position this, that certain things are
22 in your memory, regardless of looking at your notes; you
23 can remember some things?
24 A. That is the case, my Lord, yes. I have a recollection
25 of some of the people. There were other people who
26 attended who were very quiet within the group.
27
28 Q. I am not necessarily thinking of the identity of people.
29 But identity of people, events, some things you can
30 remember without your notes; is that right?
31 A. That is certainly the case, yes.
32
33 Q. Some things you would have to go to your notes before you
34 can give anything like a reliable answer?
35 A. Yes, that is true.
36
37 Q. Is that right?
38 A. That is true.
39
40 Q. I am only putting this to you because it is my experience
41 that it is typical, when people are looking back something
42 like six or seven years, as you are. Therefore, to some
43 extent it is pot luck whether you can answer a question
44 Ms. Steel asks you, whether you can answer it from your
45 memory or whether you would have to look at a particular
46 note or, indeed, all your notes in order to give an
47 answer.
48 A. That is the case, yes. Yes, my Lord.
49
50 Q. If you are asked whether so-and-so was a regular attender,
51 you might be able to say in relation to one person you
52 thought they were, from your memory, and in relation to
53 another you would have to check back through your notes to
54 see how often they cropped up, and then judge for yourself
55 whether that seemed regular to you?
56 A. That is true, yes.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I only put this to you, because it is my
59 experience of what happens in the kind of situation where
60 witnesses have to look back over a number of years. There
