Day 249 - 14 May 96 - Page 69
1 the witness statement of someone else, because you propose
2 or hope to adduce evidence of it in due course.
3
4 MS. STEEL: Right.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What it seems to me at the moment is it looks
7 like it occurs to me that Mr. Brett may not go past late
8 morning and Miss Bramford may not. So you will have an
9 opportunity to put things to Mr. Nicholson on those
10 afternoons. If you say that you want an early day on
11 either of those days because you have some specific
12 preparation, you tell me about it. But what I suggest is
13 you go on for about quarter of an hour now and then make a
14 note overnight, bearing in mind what I have said, of the
15 specific things which it would be helpful to put. You have
16 clearly got some challenges to make. For instance, you are
17 challenging Mr. Nicholson's evidence of what happened on
18 16th October 1989, which we have not come to yet.
19
20 MS. STEEL: Yes. Just some of the things I am putting with
21 regard to the private investigators will be things which
22 I will say in a statement. Other things are things which
23 other of our witnesses have told me, which I will try and
24 get a supplementary statement from them to cover them as
25 soon as possible
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Anything which you think there is a
28 reasonable prospect of adducing in evidence and which is
29 part of your case and which you know of now and along those
30 lines, you should put and, indeed, even if you think you
31 may not be able to call a witness but you have information
32 to that effect, this is your opportunity to put it to the
33 witness if you think that it may be something upon which
34 you will be relying on in due course, put it to Mr.
35 Nicholson. You can do it in fairly short form and you can
36 either accept it -- if he says, "Well I do not know
37 anything about that", you can accept that for the time
38 being or you can pursue it further. But put it in the
39 first place.
40
41 MS. STEEL: Well, I suggest to you, Mr. Nicholson, that there
42 were private investigators attending London Greenpeace
43 meetings long after January 1991 on behalf of McDonald's,
44 private investigators that were employed by companies hired
45 by McDonald's. I cannot remember off-hand exactly when
46 they stopped actually, so that is why I am saying it was
47 several months at least.
48 A. Not for me.
49
50 Q. I suggest to you that throughout the late part of 1990 and
51 some of 1991, I am not sure how long, that one of the
52 private investigators employed by your Company was
53 attending pickets of McDonald's stores on a regular basis,
54 I think every month, at, I think, the Dalston store and the
55 Seven Sisters store and handing out anti-McDonald's
56 leaflets?
57 A. I cannot help you, I am afraid.
58
59 Q. And that private investigators hired by McDonald's attended
60 the pickets at McDonald's Head Office and handed out
