Day 185 - 07 Nov 95 - Page 37
1 MR. RAMPTON: My note is tht there should be a full stop after
2 "shocked"; then the words "and said that nobody had
3 mentioned to him" come out; and it starts again "I judged
4 from this reaction".
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, that is right.
7
8 MS. STEEL: Right.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: In paragraph 31 on page 11, I ruled out the
11 words from "although I suspect".
12
13 MS. STEEL: I have got that one.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There was no objection to that. But
16 I allowed the last sentence in paragraph 45 in. I should
17 say that that is not to say that those are the only matters
18 of hearsay either in the statement or the evidence.
19
20 MS. STEEL: Right.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If we just pause. (Pause) In page 11,
23 paragraph 30 ---
24
25 MS. STEEL: Yes.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- the "many of the parents had expressed
28 concern" is evidence of the fact that they expressed
29 concern; but then that is probably all that is important
30 there.
31
32 But the point I am seeking to make is this: throughout the
33 case, there are bits of hearsay in written statements which
34 have gone in evidence; there are bits of hearsay in
35 evidence which has come from the witness box. The fact
36 that they are left in the statement or they come out in the
37 witness box does not make them any more admissible, as it
38 were. I cannot rely on them as evidence of the truth of
39 what someone has said unless, for instance, a Civil
40 Evidence Act notice is put on them, or it is said that they
41 are subject to one of the exceptions to the hearsay rule.
42 So you need not really be concerned that you may not have
43 spotted every one or, indeed, that you may have missed an
44 awful lot of them, because it is second nature, when one is
45 considering the evidence, to say to oneself, "Well,
46 I cannot take that into account because it is hearsay."
47
48 MS. STEEL: Right. I mean, I was just going to say there are a
49 couple of parts in Miss Wetli's statement as well. But, to
50 be honest, we would rather just get on with it.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are not in any way -- quite frankly,
53 I think that is sensible; and you need not concern yourself
54 that because you are not making objection, that which is
55 inadmissible becomes admissible in some way.
56
57 MS. STEEL: All right. Thank you.
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