Day 261 - 12 Jun 96 - Page 62


     
     1        see you might suggest, at the end of the day, had certain
     2        similarities.
     3
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  Well, I was just worried that ------
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is fair enough of you to raise it in case
     7        there has been an oversight.  If you do suggest that the
     8        leaflet in question was not available on this occasion,
     9        then you had best put it to Mr. Pocklington.
    10
    11   MS. STEEL:   Can I just -- I am a bit concerned with
    12        Mr. Rampton's continual comments along this line.  I was
    13        not on the stall at the London Greenpeace fair, so I do not
    14        have a clue whether or not the fact sheet was on there.
    15        But with our witnesses, Mr. Rampton has not put 90 per cent
    16        of what he is presumably going to try and challenge at the
    17        end of the day; and we are, basically, testing whether or
    18        not there is any evidence that it was actually
    19        distributed.  There are two parts to the equation.  There
    20        is not just -- can we -- well, before it gets to can we
    21        disapprove it, the Plaintiffs actually have to prove it.
    22        As far as I can see, it is not in his note.  We have not
    23        seen any original copy.  When I went to inspect the
    24        originals at the Plaintiffs' office, there was no original
    25        copy from Mr. Pocklington.  So, as far as I am concerned,
    26        it is, you know, it is their responsibility to prove it and
    27        they have not produced the evidence in order to prove it.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  I was only concerned in case the witness was going
    30        to come along in future and say, no, they were not there.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If that is your stand, that you do not have a
    33        positive case that it was not there, but you are going to
    34        suggest at the end of the day that there is an adequate
    35        evidence to persuade me, even on the mere balance of
    36        probabilities, that it was there, then you can leave it
    37        where it is.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  Of course.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But if you are going to suggest positively
    42        that it was not there, rather than that there is a vacuum
    43        of effective evidence, then you should put it to the
    44        witness.
    45
    46   MS. STEEL:   I do not know.  I mean, can I ask a -----
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The position is this:  if you were
    49        represented by counsel, he would have ascertained from you
    50        whether your case was that the leaflet complained of 
    51        positively was not there, or whether you accepted that it 
    52        was there, or whether you just do not know whether it was 
    53        there but you are not prepared to accept it was there, or
    54        whether you do not know it was there but you accept that it
    55        might well have been; and he would then ask questions or
    56        not ask a question on the strength of his instructions.
    57        Probably, what he would do, if your case was positively
    58        that it was not there, he would actually put that to the
    59        witness.  He would just say: "I suggest, in fact, that the
    60        leaflet that this case is all about was not available on

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