Day 277 - 10 Jul 96 - Page 46
1 Q. "If the corporation wins she is ordered not to distribute
2 the offending leaflets again"?
3 A. No, that is what I am saying, I didn't say that to her.
4
5 Q. You did not say that?
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Miss Steel said that she did not say down to
8 'rapport'?
9 A. Yes, that is right.
10
11 MR. RAMPTON: I am sorry. Rapport. Not said. What do you
12 think you did say, do you remember?
13 A. I think she asked me and I wouldn't answer.
14
15 Q. Then, if you move to the next paragraph, the journalist
16 seems to recite her own question. "Did she anticipate that
17 she is presumably still that fighting the case would take
18 over her life", and this bit is in quotes, "No, no, but I
19 did not really have any choice. They said if we apologised
20 they would drop the case but as far as we are concerned,
21 what was on those leaflets is the truth. I was angry that
22 they even had the cheek and nerve to ask us to apologise to
23 them. It is them who should be apologising to us." Did
24 you say that?
25 A. I couldn't say that I said the exact words but the
26 essence of it is, yes.
27
28 Q. Right, so even if Barlow Lyde & Gilbert had sent you a
29 letter before you ever got a writ it would not have made
30 the slightest bit of difference would it?
31 A. I don't know.
32
33 Q. Well, it obviously would not. Not in a million years would
34 you have admitted wrong would you, Miss Steel?
35 A. Well, I would not admit wrong if I had not done
36 anything wrong, no.
37
38 Q. No. So all this stuff about not having had the letters is
39 a nonsense?
40 A. The point about the stuff about not having had the
41 letters is because your clients are deceiving the public by
42 asserting that they wrote to us before they served the
43 writs on us, which is not true.
44
45 Q. And the implications which you are trying to convey is that
46 you if had had a nice letter saying, "please withdraw and
47 apologise", you might have thought about it?
48 A. No, that is not the implication,, the implication is
49 that your clients are lying to the public by saying that
50 they wrote to us before they served the writs on us and
51 that is not true.
52
53 Q. But it would not have made any difference at all would it?
54 A. I can't say whether or not it would have made a
55 difference. I know that I would not have apologised for
56 something which I did not think deserved an apology.
57
58 Q. In the next paragraph there is a sentence in the middle of
59 the paragraph which says, "She hates the commercial pursuit
60 of profit"?
