Day 261 - 12 Jun 96 - Page 44
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You said you were not aware of other
2 investigators at the time. Although you met Jack Russell
3 in the first part of 1990, did you know that he was
4 involved in investigating the same people as you were?
5 A. No, I did not, my Lord, no. I attended meetings that
6 I was instructed to attend. As far as I am aware, we never
7 attended the same meeting at the same time.
8
9 MS. STEEL: How did you come to meet Jack Russell, then?
10 A. From my recollection, in the office of Kings.
11
12 Q. You were not freelance; you worked directly for Kings?
13 A. I did, yes.
14
15 Q. And so did Mr. Russell?
16 A. I believe so, at that time, yes.
17
18 Q. Did he have some position of authority within Kings? Was
19 he a managing director, or something like that?
20 A. At the time I knew him, he did not. I believe
21 subsequently he became a general manager of Kings.
22
23 Q. Right.
24 A. But certainly not at the time I knew him.
25
26 Q. Have you become a police officer since leaving Kings, since
27 being an inquiry agent?
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am not sure that that question has any
30 relevance to the issues in this case.
31
32 MS. STEEL: I am interested in finding out whether what was
33 said at pretrial hearings was true or not.
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: I do not believe that is a relevant question,
36 either.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest is, you carry on with your
39 cross-examination and, in the light of your
40 cross-examination, when it is virtually completed, if you
41 want to ask about the rest of anyone's career and if there
42 is any objection, I will rule on it.
43
44 MS. STEEL: I mean, if I just say, it seems that it is quite
45 standard practice for people to actually be asked what
46 their career is; and I do not quite know -- I am not
47 exactly asking him where he works from -----
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know. One tries to avoid asking any
50 question which is personal to a witness unless it actually
51 bites on an issue in the case, in any kind of case, this or
52 any other -- criminal, civil, anything else. The witnesses
53 come into the witness box as witnesses, and if it is
54 significant to an issue to know something about their own
55 life outside that of a witness, then of course it is
56 legitimate; but unless it is, one tries to avoid it. There
57 is a simple reason: it is a public court, and there is no
58 reason why anyone's life -- yours, mine, Mr. Rampton's, a
59 witness -- should be known to anyone publicly, save in so
60 far as it bites on an issue. That is all.
