Day 261 - 12 Jun 96 - Page 44


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You said you were not aware of other
     2        investigators at the time.  Although you met Jack Russell
     3        in the first part of 1990, did you know that he was
     4        involved in investigating the same people as you were?
     5        A.  No, I did not, my Lord, no.  I attended meetings that
     6        I was instructed to attend.  As far as I am aware, we never
     7        attended the same meeting at the same time.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   How did you come to meet Jack Russell, then?
    10        A.  From my recollection, in the office of Kings.
    11
    12   Q.   You were not freelance; you worked directly for Kings?
    13        A.  I did, yes.
    14
    15   Q.   And so did Mr. Russell?
    16        A.  I believe so, at that time, yes.
    17
    18   Q.   Did he have some position of authority within Kings?  Was
    19        he a managing director, or something like that?
    20        A.  At the time I knew him, he did not.  I believe
    21        subsequently he became a general manager of Kings.
    22
    23   Q.   Right.
    24        A.  But certainly not at the time I knew him.
    25
    26   Q.   Have you become a police officer since leaving Kings, since
    27        being an inquiry agent?
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am not sure that that question has any
    30        relevance to the issues in this case.
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:   I am interested in finding out whether what was
    33        said at pretrial hearings was true or not.
    34
    35   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not believe that is a relevant question,
    36        either.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest is, you carry on with your
    39        cross-examination and, in the light of your
    40        cross-examination, when it is virtually completed, if you
    41        want to ask about the rest of anyone's career and if there
    42        is any objection, I will rule on it.
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:  I mean, if I just say, it seems that it is quite
    45        standard practice for people to actually be asked what
    46        their career is; and I do not quite know -- I am not
    47        exactly asking him where he works from -----
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not know.  One tries to avoid asking any
    50        question which is personal to a witness unless it actually 
    51        bites on an issue in the case, in any kind of case, this or 
    52        any other -- criminal, civil, anything else.  The witnesses 
    53        come into the witness box as witnesses, and if it is
    54        significant to an issue to know something about their own
    55        life outside that of a witness, then of course it is
    56        legitimate; but unless it is, one tries to avoid it.  There
    57        is a simple reason: it is a public court, and there is no
    58        reason why anyone's life -- yours, mine, Mr. Rampton's, a
    59        witness -- should be known to anyone publicly, save in so
    60        far as it bites on an issue.  That is all.

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