Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 06
1 put.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. If you feel unable to carry on, raise
4 the matter with me and we will see what we can do.
5
6 MR. MORRIS: (To the witness): Have you got a copy of your
7 statement in front of you?
8 A. Yes, I have.
9
10 Q. On page 2, you said that you considered Mr. Coton to be an
11 honest, steady and amiable person. Is that correct?
12 A. That is correct.
13
14 Q. And you felt tht his performance deteriorated towards the
15 end of his employment with the Company?
16 A. That is what I said.
17
18 Q. Right. What was your position at that time?
19 A. I was a senior Supervisor.
20
21 Q. Right. So, you had information passed on to you by his
22 Supervisor, Neil Skehel; yes?
23 A. Yes.
24
25 Q. Towards the end of Mr. Coton's period at Colchester,
26 Mr. Skehel was passing on information to you; is that
27 correct?
28 A. Yes.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me just ask, Mr. Morris. (To the
31 witness): Could you put a date on when you would say that
32 Mr. Coton's performance deteriorated?
33 A. Could I put a date on that?
34
35 Q. Yes. First of all, was it before or after Mr. Skehel came?
36 A. I think it would be fair to say that more indications
37 of Mr. Coton's performance came to my attention after
38 Neil Skehel became a Supervisor than before; although, on
39 rereading the performance reviews that I have done on
40 Mark Davis, it is evident that of all the 18 or so
41 restaurants that I had, that Colchester was one of the
42 restaurants of concern for a while because of high crew
43 turnover and problems with adherence to McDonald's quality
44 standards.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: (Pause) I am just looking if there is anything
47 else in your statement.
48
49 You then say, on the next paragraph, that you did not have
50 any reason to think that Mark Davis knew about
51 malpractices, because he candidly discussed all aspects of
52 work with you when you were Supervisor; is that correct?
53 A. That is correct. That is what it says, yes.
54
55 Q. So, you trusted him to give you accurate information about
56 what was going on in Colchester?
57 A. I did, yes.
58
59 Q. And you trusted Neil Skehel to give you accurate
60 information about what was happening in Colchester?
