Day 306 - 26 Nov 96 - Page 48
1 watched a number of pickets and also a number of videos of
2 pickets and looked at photographs of pickets, it all
3 becomes a jumbled mess and, in actual fact, you cannot
4 actually say with any great certainty who was handing out
5 leaflets on any particular date and, for that matter, what
6 leaflets they were handing out. People are quite capable
7 of convincing themselves that they have seen something
8 when, in fact, they have not seen it.
9
10 Just a couple of additional points in relation to his
11 second statement. On page 4 of that statement, paragraph
12 3, he said: "If proceedings were to be issued it was
13 essential not only that we should know the identities of
14 all the ringleaders but that we should have sufficient
15 evidence of publication against them all." The point about
16 that is, so why not write a detailed statement about the
17 October 1989 picket at the time, rather than leaving it to
18 six years after the event?
19
20 I cannot remember which photograph this was in, but the
21 photograph where Mr. Nicholson said the holdall was.
22 I think it was photograph number 10, and he said there was
23 a holdall there. If you actually look at photograph,
24 I think it is number 17, which was also referred to at the
25 same time, it is a shot from another angle and there is
26 not, in fact, a holdall there. Yet, Mr. Nicholson implied
27 in his first statement that the holdall had been there
28 throughout the demonstration.
29
30 I think, really, it is pretty clear -- well, it is not my
31 job to decide whether or not Mr. Nicholson was lying, or
32 whether he has just got a pretty bad memory, but there is
33 one thing that is for sure, that his evidence is unreliable
34 because of all the changes that he has made to it and,
35 obviously, there are all the ones in the first statement
36 that I have gone through where he has contradicted that in
37 his evidence, contradicted what was said in his first
38 statement when he gave evidence.
39
40 I think, just generally, you know, he says he has got a
41 memory of me distributing the fact sheet and he thinks he
42 recalls it. It is very noteworthy that, despite the fact
43 that Mr. Gravett was mentioned in his first statement, he
44 does not remember him handing out leaflets in his second
45 statement, and it may very well be that that is because he
46 is no longer a party to these proceedings. So,
47 Mr. Nicholson does not have to remember it. As far as his
48 memory of me distributing the fact sheet, he thinks he
49 recalls it but the reality is that it is wishful thinking,
50 that he has just convinced himself of something which he
51 just does not know whether or not it happened in reality.
52 It is all based on jumbled up memories of lots of different
53 pickets and photos and videos, and so on.
54
55 I think all the differences that are in the second
56 statement -- I do not see why we should assume that this
57 second statement would be any more accurate than the first
58 statement, which, as we have seen, is pretty inaccurate and
59 that is particularly so for the second statement, since it
60 was made even later after the event, over six years later,
