Day 305 - 25 Nov 96 - Page 28
1 Whatever meeting it was at, he did not record anything
2 about the leaflets complained of being stocked in boxes and
3 being available to take away. He did, in the notes about
4 that meeting, make a reference to a filing cabinet, but
5 when we cross-examined him about this on day 261, page 75,
6 he said that he could not say which leaflets were available
7 and, also, that he had never examined the contents of the
8 filing cabinet.
9
10 I think Mr. Morris made this point, anyway, but I am not
11 sure, so I will just say it. If there were copies of the
12 fact sheet in a filing cabinet or in a box on the shelf,
13 that in itself would not be distribution, because there was
14 not a sign up directing the public to come inside and get
15 copies of the fact sheet. The only people who would be in
16 the office of London Greenpeace were people who were
17 attending meetings or involved in the group in some way.
18
19 In his third statement, Mr. Pocklington mentioned in
20 paragraph 23 that anti-McDonald's leaflets were always
21 available at Endsleigh Street meetings. I think it should
22 be noted that this was the first time he ever mentioned
23 this. It was not in his first statement and it was not in
24 his notes. This third statement was made six years after
25 the event.
26
27 Also, he does not specify which anti-McDonald's leaflets he
28 is referring to; he just said the anti-McDonald's leaflets
29 were always displayed and available at the monthly open
30 meetings. I mean, obviously there are two points, really:
31 that he does not say which ones, and how could he possibly
32 remember that they were at each and every meeting six years
33 later?
34
35 Another general point about leaflets is that there was
36 reference to 10,000 anti-McDonald's leaflets being printed
37 wrongly. They were supposed to have been printed for
38 Hackney and Islington Animal Rights, and they were printed
39 with London Greenpeace's name on them, and so they were
40 given to London Greenpeace. Just to point out that all the
41 evidence that there has been about which leaflets these
42 were was that they were fact sheets, not the fact sheets,
43 that they were the A5 leaflets. Mr. Gravett gave evidence
44 about that, and there is no evidence to the contrary.
45
46 Going back to the evidence of Mr. Pocklington, relating to
47 the meeting of 16th November 1989, what I have tried to do
48 is go through the statements to identify where they
49 actually alleged any specific comments or behaviour on my
50 part, be it in relation to McDonald's or the group in
51 general, because it is not exactly clear what the
52 Plaintiffs are going to say is an important bit of evidence
53 or not. I just thought that might be a way of dealing with
54 it. In paragraph 10 of the first statement,
55 Mr. Pocklington says that during the course of the meeting
56 of 16th November 1989 it became clear to him that myself
57 and Mr. Morris were core members of the group and major
58 participants in its activities.
59
60 I think it should be noted that there is no mention of that
