Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 54
1 Professor Crawford to come back to court, partly because I
2 do not want to waste time and partly also because I am not
3 here as amicus; I am here representing one side in an
4 adversarial procedure.
5
6 If, however, your Lordship were to indicate that your
7 Lordship would find the difficult issues which Professor
8 Crawford's evidence touches on is a resolution if you heard
9 me cross-examine him, why, then I am happy to change my
10 mind.
11
12 MS. STEEL: If he is not cross-examined does that mean -----
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not mean, as I said to you, that if
15 you do not cross-examine a witness that means you have
16 accepted everything he has said. Do you remember that
17 either you or Mr. Morris asked about that, and I reassured
18 you about that?
19
20 MS. STEEL: Yes, but if Mr. Rampton is going to criticise a lot
21 of what Professor Crawford said but he has not
22 cross-examined him on it, is that allowable? I understand
23 there might be things that missed out by mistake, but where
24 he is saying: "I do not want to cross-examine him".
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, I find it extremely difficult
27 to rule on that in the abstract. What I think we should do
28 is finish, get on with Dr. Millstone. If we finish him
29 during tomorrow and there is time left and you want to come
30 back to this, then I will try to be helpful. But I think
31 it has to be illustrated by either you saying: "Mr. Rampton
32 did not challenge that, does that mean he can still argue
33 that it was wrong", or Mr. Rampton saying: "I have taken
34 the view that I did not need to challenge Professor
35 Crawford on this because I can refer to this, that or the
36 other later".
37
38 MS. STEEL: I do not know. I am feeling like I am getting
39 increasingly concerned by what is going on and the
40 implications for later on in the trial.
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord ----
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think you are being taken advantage
45 of. I am not anxious about Mr. Geoffrey Cannon for this
46 reason, that he has obviously built up a very considerable
47 knowledge of the literature over the years. So he is
48 particularly adept at saying: "For support for this look at
49 that". But he does not pretend to be a medical or chemical
50 expert in the particular field. So, to a very large extent
51 you, Mr. Morris, or Mr. Rampton, if we did our homework
52 could put ourselves in just as good a position as
53 Mr. Cannon when it came to referring to a paper and saying
54 what it means. Do you follow me so far?
55
56 MS. STEEL: I do not know. He has taken a long time learning
57 all about it. I do not know it is quite that simple.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If we read the same papers it might well be
60 that we would be in no worse position than he is. When you
