Day 181 - 01 Nov 95 - Page 69


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  If Mr. Alimi is the 4th and 5th and he
     3        can come on the 6th, there may be obvious sense in that.
     4        But find out if he can do any day or days between then and
     5        Thursday the 27th.  At the moment, I am putting Mr. Alimi
     6        with a query on the 4th and 5th, and I am putting Mr. Coton
     7        with a query on the 6th, just so that I remember to keep
     8        him in mind.
     9
    10        I think it is important, Mr. Rampton, even if all that it
    11        involves is Mr. Atkinson sitting down with a dictating
    12        machine, that we get any request for Further and Better
    13        Particulars in respect of Mr. Coton's statement out as soon
    14        as possible.
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, it is going to be this afternoon, in
    17        fact.
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:  What is the legal position with the request for
    20        Further and Better Particulars of a witness statement,
    21        because I do not think it has ever come up in this case
    22        before?
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  No, it has not.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, it is just a phrase I used.  I did not
    27        mean to use it in its technical sense.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  Mr. Rampton did use that phrase.
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I did for this reason, that, as your
    32        Lordship knows, I said at the beginning of the case, and
    33        I have faithfully adhered to it, I would not require
    34        additional allegations which appeared in the witness
    35        statements to be specifically pleaded as part of the
    36        defence; I would treat them as such.  By the same token, it
    37        must follow that if the witness statement contains
    38        insufficient detail to enable me to deal with what is said,
    39        it must be the subject of a request for Further and Better
    40        Particulars in whatever form, and in this case it will be
    41        by letter.  There is no formality about a request for
    42        particulars.  It has always been possible to ask for
    43        particulars by letter, and that is what we propose to do in
    44        this case.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There is that point, and it occurred to me
    47        also that what we are trying to avoid is Mr. Coton coming
    48        into the witness box, either in examination-in-chief or
    49        cross-examination coming out with further detail which you
    50        then say we would like an opportunity to check on before 
    51        you complete your cross-examination, which means that 
    52        Mr. Coton has to go away and then come back at some later 
    53        stage, which is not only more helpful to me but I am sure
    54        Mr. Coton would much appreciate getting his evidence over
    55        and done with in one day.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  It did not happen in Mr. Pearson's case.  As your
    58        Lordship observed, there is an awful lot in that which
    59        I had had no notice, really because he is not a witness of
    60        fact and much of what he said was entirely predictable

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