Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 45
1 right.
2
3 Q. 1995?
4 A. Sorry, 1994.
5
6 Q. That is not several years ago, is it?
7 A. No. It is some time ago, though.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you are suggesting there is anything
10 sinister, put it, because largely one works on one's own
11 experience and one knows with one's own business papers
12 that every so often you go through, if you have a spare
13 hour, and you just chuck away the stuff you do not think
14 you are ever going to need the future. So, if you think
15 there is something sinister, put it to him point blank.
16
17 MS. STEEL: I think it is very convenient that throughout the
18 whole of this case there are large quantities of documents
19 missing which would be very helpful.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am giving you a chance to put it to him
22 because, as I say, one's judgment is formed by one's own
23 experience to some extent; and, if you are a busy person in
24 a busy job, you accumulate a lot of paper and the sooner
25 you get rid of a lot of it the better, very often. So,
26 I am inviting you to put it, if you say that there is a
27 sinister reason in Mr. Skehel's case. But put it to him
28 point blank, rather than ask -----
29
30 MS. STEEL: I mean, the point is, the point of my question was
31 to find out when the documents were thrown away, and the
32 witness has now changed his mind.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, you put that to him, you see, or put it
35 to him that you suggest there is a particular reason for
36 him getting rid of them, so I can understand what you are
37 getting at. There is nothing sinister in it itself, unless
38 you put a reason for getting rid of records from the past.
39
40 MS. STEEL: It is not just about Mr. Skehel; it is about the
41 whole Company.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Put it to him directly, rather than the
44 oblique approach.
45
46 MS. STEEL: (To the witness): Well, we will be moving on to
47 this later, but there were two performance reviews which
48 you say that you carried out on Mr. Coton which cannot be
49 found, either by you or by the Company; there is this rap
50 session where you say the crew made various complaints
51 including, you believe, that was when the issue first came
52 up of docking of hours; other documents in relation to the
53 Colchester store. None of these seem to be available, and
54 I would suggest to you that the reason they are not
55 available is because they do not back up what you are
56 saying in court, so they were got rid of to help you in
57 your position?
58 A. When I discarded the documents when I moved in 1994,
59 I was completely unaware of my potential involvement in
60 this situation. I would say that most of the information
