Day 306 - 26 Nov 96 - Page 21
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2 He cannot remember the detail now -- top of page 63.
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4 He referred to Mr. Pocklington's notes. I asked him, at
5 the bottom of page 63, whether there were -- well, it does
6 not really matter.
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8 I asked him: "So it is possible" -- line 9, page 64 -- "if
9 what you are saying is true, that somebody there at the
10 meeting said something to you about me which I did not
11 overhear?"
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13 Answer: "It either came from what you said, what you
14 portrayed. What somebody else said, I do not recall."
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16 "But you do not remember if I would have overheard
17 everything that was said that evening?"
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19 Answer: "I do not think you did."
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21 The point I am making there is -- and he has recognised
22 it -- if somebody said something that was untrue about me,
23 I would not necessarily have heard it. Bearing in mind the
24 informality at London Greenpeace meetings, there is no
25 inference that can be drawn that if someone says something
26 about someone that was not true, then obviously that would
27 have been challenged at the time, because of the
28 informality of the meetings. In fact, I think it should
29 also be noted -- it was a point I was going to make -- that
30 people drifted in and out of meetings and one of the
31 witnesses, one of them -- I mean, this came up during the
32 evidence and it is only common sense in any event --
33 especially because of the informality and people arriving
34 late, leaving early, that kind of stuff. There is no
35 guarantee, without specific evidence to that effect, that
36 anybody who is named as an attender of a meeting is
37 actually there at any particular time hearing what is being
38 said and participating. I think that is very important in
39 terms of the agency argument or any kind of decisions, such
40 as they were, at any meetings. The Plaintiffs have the
41 burden of proof to show that myself or Helen Steel were
42 actually in the room at the time, not just that they were
43 named on a list of attenders but they were actually present
44 in the room at the time when a specific decision was made,
45 and they were participating by -- they could hear what was
46 happening and influence the decision in such a way that
47 might have led to publication, or that did lead to
48 publication. Absent that proof, then there is no
49 evidence.
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51 Then I said to him at the middle of page 65: "So, as soon
52 as you heard me say my name was Dave, you thought 'Aha,
53 this could be important for future recollection'?
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55 Answer: If it was the first occasion I had met you, yes, I
56 knew it would be important.
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58 Question: Because you had been told that I was a key
59 person in the anti-McDonald's campaign and you had to find
60 out information about me?
