Day 261 - 12 Jun 96 - Page 62
1 see you might suggest, at the end of the day, had certain
2 similarities.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. Well, I was just worried that ------
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is fair enough of you to raise it in case
7 there has been an oversight. If you do suggest that the
8 leaflet in question was not available on this occasion,
9 then you had best put it to Mr. Pocklington.
10
11 MS. STEEL: Can I just -- I am a bit concerned with
12 Mr. Rampton's continual comments along this line. I was
13 not on the stall at the London Greenpeace fair, so I do not
14 have a clue whether or not the fact sheet was on there.
15 But with our witnesses, Mr. Rampton has not put 90 per cent
16 of what he is presumably going to try and challenge at the
17 end of the day; and we are, basically, testing whether or
18 not there is any evidence that it was actually
19 distributed. There are two parts to the equation. There
20 is not just -- can we -- well, before it gets to can we
21 disapprove it, the Plaintiffs actually have to prove it.
22 As far as I can see, it is not in his note. We have not
23 seen any original copy. When I went to inspect the
24 originals at the Plaintiffs' office, there was no original
25 copy from Mr. Pocklington. So, as far as I am concerned,
26 it is, you know, it is their responsibility to prove it and
27 they have not produced the evidence in order to prove it.
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: I was only concerned in case the witness was going
30 to come along in future and say, no, they were not there.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If that is your stand, that you do not have a
33 positive case that it was not there, but you are going to
34 suggest at the end of the day that there is an adequate
35 evidence to persuade me, even on the mere balance of
36 probabilities, that it was there, then you can leave it
37 where it is.
38
39 MR. RAMPTON: Of course.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But if you are going to suggest positively
42 that it was not there, rather than that there is a vacuum
43 of effective evidence, then you should put it to the
44 witness.
45
46 MS. STEEL: I do not know. I mean, can I ask a -----
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The position is this: if you were
49 represented by counsel, he would have ascertained from you
50 whether your case was that the leaflet complained of
51 positively was not there, or whether you accepted that it
52 was there, or whether you just do not know whether it was
53 there but you are not prepared to accept it was there, or
54 whether you do not know it was there but you accept that it
55 might well have been; and he would then ask questions or
56 not ask a question on the strength of his instructions.
57 Probably, what he would do, if your case was positively
58 that it was not there, he would actually put that to the
59 witness. He would just say: "I suggest, in fact, that the
60 leaflet that this case is all about was not available on
