Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 68
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2 MS. STEEL: We are just not ready for Mr. Nicholson. He is an
3 extremely important publication witness. He has a new
4 statement which has been served only yesterday.
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6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Who have you got to put in on Tuesday, 14th,
7 if we do not have Mr. Nicholson, because I think you have
8 had time to do it. You have a day of Mr. Nicholson;
9 I appreciate your cross-examination may not finish in one
10 day, and he cannot come back on the Thursday. If Mr. Brett
11 finished early on the Wednesday he could carry on -----
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13 MR. RAMPTON: Which he certainly will do.
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15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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17 MR. RAMPTON: He is certainly not a day's evidence, or even half
18 a day I doubt.
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20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I certainly think you can cross-examine
21 Mr. Nicholson. Some of what he says and the most direct
22 part of what he says you will, either in your case, accept
23 or disagree to from your own knowledge and recollection.
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25 MS. STEEL: The point is -----
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27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You do not need any preparation for that, or
28 very little.
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30 MS. STEEL: Well, that is not actually true. We got served
31 another statement yesterday. I have actually been trying
32 to make some contact with somebody else who was involved
33 with London Greenpeace at the time and was on the picket on
34 16th October in 1989 with the aim of getting a statement
35 from them. I mean, there are parts of his evidence that
36 I can deal with. However, there are considerable parts and
37 he covers a very wide ground. He is the overall person in
38 charge of the whole publication, the decision to bring the
39 case, and so on. He is a major witness, and I am not in a
40 position to do -----
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42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: A number of the matters you want to ask him
43 about, I assume, go to the question of alleged consent to
44 publication. You were prepared to put forward a detailed
45 argument as to why you should have leave in relation to
46 that and that must have involved you in quite a lot of
47 preparation, and clearly did from the way you presented
48 your argument.
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50 MS. STEEL: It was not done by us, actually.
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52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It what?
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54 MS. STEEL: It was not done by us, the argument for putting
55 forward for -- the argument about consent was done by
56 somebody else.
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58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I cannot look behind that. You presented it
59 perfectly ably in court.
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