Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 24
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2 MR. RAMPTON: No, it is not, and that is where I believe the
3 difficulty arises in relation to Mr. Russell; and it was
4 for that reason that in relation to his notes alone we
5 served a section 4 Civil Evidence Act Notice.
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7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I want to come to that in a moment.
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9 MS. STEEL: When was that served?
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11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I say technical; I do not mean technical in
12 the sense of the specious technical point at all. The
13 strict legal position is this: that Mr. Russell could not
14 refresh, when he was in the witness box, his memory from
15 the report of 26th April 1990, because that report, unless
16 either he made the report himself ---
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18 MR. RAMPTON: Which he did not say that he did.
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20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- and there is no evidence that he did, or
21 checked it against his notes or his own report.
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23 MR. RAMPTON: Since his position was that he did not believe he
24 made any he notes, he could not do that either.
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26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. The picture I have got is that what his
27 recollection seemed to be is that he went back to the
28 office and made a report.
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30 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
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32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: And what we had in court was a report of the
33 inquiry agents, which said: "The report of our investigator
34 runs as follows", and then off it goes in the first
35 person. On the other hand, there is evidence that he did
36 take notes; and, if that is right, query whether he then
37 made a report from his notes and a report which we had was
38 sent off, was made on that. But it does not matter,
39 because it is common ground that the report we had in court
40 was not actually Mr. Russell's report, and there is no
41 evidence that he checked it against his report, if he made
42 one, or his notes, if he made them, is there?
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44 MR. RAMPTON: I agree. We do not even know it was. Somebody at
45 Hartley's obviously typed it. If we had been able to call
46 the person from Hartley's to say: "Actually, yes, I do
47 remember Mr. Russell's notes, and, indeed, this is an
48 accurate version", it would be different. King, sorry. I
49 am not allowed to say it but the jam person. I have to say
50 King. That is right.
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52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. If one looks at -----
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54 MR. MORRIS: Are we still on the same subject?
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56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. If one looks then to see whether it can
57 go in under section 4. It would in some ways be better if
58 you follow it, but I am not sure that technicality is
59 necessary, I am not sure you need it in the light of the
60 question I ultimately have to ask Mr. Rampton. Let us
