Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 53
1 was talking about. His strength, if there was one, was the
2 amount of research he had done and the papers he referred
3 to. So, I can follow that and I can form my own judgment
4 as to whether it is strong or not.
5
6 Professor Crawford, who is a very considerable specialist
7 and spent at least 20 years looking into the biochemistry
8 of diet, if I can say that, perhaps refers less to papers;
9 he just speaks from his own expertise; do you understand?
10
11 It is not to say one way at the end of the day will be
12 strong, one kind of evidence at the end of the day will be
13 stronger than another kind. One does not start from the
14 presumption that one kind is stronger than another. One
15 has just to look at the particular evidence and see what,
16 if any, safe conclusions one can draw.
17
18 In fact it might be rather academic in this case because,
19 for better or worse, we have Tarasoff and Kelly which we
20 can look at, if you want, either now or when you are
21 addressing me later and we have Dr. Samuels' critique of
22 his methods.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: That is why I was saying it would save time if we
25 do not have to go through Dr. Samuels' paper, but seeing as
26 Tarasoff and Kelly was not looked, at least Dr. Samuels is
27 there to counter if it is looked at.
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I do not know whether Mr. Morris and
30 Ms. Steel understand, with some exception in the case of
31 Dr. Arnott and perhaps one or two of the other witnesses,
32 I did not refer your Lordship in open court because it
33 takes so long, to all the references. They should know
34 that it is my intention, unless your Lordship tells me I am
35 wrong, to take your Lordship to a far wider selection of
36 the learned papers which support the oral evidence of the
37 witnesses or, on the contrary, contradict it when I come to
38 close this case.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You must feel free when you come to the end
41 of the case to refer to any reference which you wish to,
42 either to say that it supports an argument of yours, or to
43 say that for this reason or another, although supported,
44 although relied on by Mr. Rampton, it is not worth a string
45 of beans.
46
47 You are not debarred from referring to it because you have
48 not put it to a witness. There is the risk that if you
49 refer to it for the first time in submissions at the end it
50 will carry less weight than if it had been specifically
51 referred to by a witness who adds to it his own expertise
52 and say: "I agree with that" or "it makes sense". But one
53 cannot lay down hard and fast rules about it.
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, may I add at this stage -- I do not know
56 if it is helpful or not; I am not giving anything away,
57 I know that, if I were I would not do it -- it is
58 principally for that reason that I put Mr. Cannon on one
59 side, who is not in a true sense a scientific expert. It
60 was principally for that reason I did not invite or require
